Literary Hub

Behind the Mic: On Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon, Read by Ramón de Ocampo

Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens.

In a story that shifts through time, Ramón de Ocampo is a welcome guide, and his narration is as lush and mesmerizing as the prose itself. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly talk about Paul Yoon’s historical novel that begins in Laos in 1969, and shows three very different paths taken by teenagers caught up in the bombing of the country by the United States. Alisak, Pranny, and Noi have found work in an almost completely abandoned field hospital, getting paid to ride motorbikes through streets and fields of unexploded bombs to ferry in supplies and the injured. The friends are separated when a doctor helps them escape, and we discover how tiny actions can have huge ramifications.

***

To listen to the rest of the episode, as well as the whole archive of Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine, subscribe and listen on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts.

Article continues after advertisement

Looking for a bookish community that focuses on positivity and inspiration? That’s Page Chaser’s mission: to have conversations with avid readers who are believe that everything is worthy of discussion—from Mister Rogers to the Hunger Games to Little Women. Join the Page Chaser crew at www.PageChaser.com, where you can read articles, watch videos, sign up for amazing bookish deals, and so much more.

More from Literary Hub

Literary Hub3 min read
Does the Simon & Schuster Acquisition Signal an Antitrust Crisis in Publishing?
The coronavirus pandemic is dramatically disrupting not only our daily lives but society itself. This show features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the deeper economic, political, and technological consequenc
Literary Hub3 min read
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on the Time He Met Langston Hughes (and More)
Hosted by Paul Holdengräber, The Quarantine Tapes chronicles shifting paradigms in the age of social distancing. Each day, Paul calls a guest for a brief discussion about how they are experiencing the global pandemic. Paul Holdengräber is joined by w
Literary Hub13 min readPsychology
On Struggling With Drug Addiction And The System Of Incarceration
There is a lie, thin as paper, folded between every layer of the criminal justice system, that says you deserve whatever happens to you in the system, because you belong there. Every human at the helm of every station needs to believe it—judge, attor

Related Books & Audiobooks