This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026.
At first glance, a novel premised on the idea that one man, moving across America over some decades, managed to start, and crucially, abandon, four families, who then seek to unite many years later via a countrywide road trip sounds like a comedic jaunt like no other.
And sure, Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson is pretty funny, buoyed boy smart, clever writing, highly memorable characters and a series of set pieces that include, as you might expect, some interesting meetings as only child siblings across four states and separated by decades (though united by the shared experience of being abandoned by their dad) discover each other exists and try to forge sibling relationships in what are, by any metric, highly unusual circumstances.
But what floors you and gets right up under any and all defences you might have is how heartfelt the novel is, not only in the expectedly tense final act where all the kids find their dad and try to reconcile the good dad he was in the decade or so when he raised them with the sort of man who would up sticks and leave them one day, with no warning, never to be heard from again.
The conversations each of the kids have with their dad differ from forty-something Reuben “Rube”, who has been without him the longest and who is the loneliest, to the person who could be described as the central protagonist, 32-year-old Madeline “Mad” Hill who runs a hugely successful, vital-worthy organic farm in Oklahoma to 21-year-old up-and-coming basketball star Pepper “Pep” and 11-year-old Theron “Tom” are all arrestingly moving in their way, powerfully raw ways.
But here was Rube, her brother. It was enough. Maybe it would end up being too much, more than she could handle. Maybe it would all get so much worse. How could it not get worse? But for now, walking across the grass, to the only place she’d ever called home, it was enough to have someone walking alongside her.
Wilson lays bare fairly authentic emotions throughout Run for the Hills, not only when the inevitable confrontation with their dad, which turns out nothing like you’d expect, but when each of the siblings are meeting each other.
While there is a bond almost immediately between them all, you don’t just take four people of wildly different ages and upbringing – with each pf them, Charles aka Chip aka Chuck etc etc Hill was a different person ranging from an organic farmer to a writer to a basketball coach and a TV producer – and expect them to coalesce into a family, ragtag or otherwise.
And while, they do come together in some smartly heartwarming and genuinely affecting ways, a building of family on the road that is borne of necessity but also genuine connection, there are also some real moments when they wonder what on earth they are doing.
Rube is leading the charge, setting out from Boston to pick up Mad then Pep then Tom – while they all have very fine names, their dad had a penchant for nicknames, some of curious construction and it’s these shortened appellations that define his kids – with all of them heading to California where Charles, or whatever he’s called these days, is supposed to leave.
But while it’s a worthy quest or adventure, one powered by adrenaline, a need for answers and some very real pain, what exactly do they all hope to find in the end?
(courtesy official Kevin Wilson author site)
That’s the million dollar question but it’s one none of them really have an answer for.
Reuben and Mad have been without their dad the longest, and as the effective elders of the group, are the ones primed with the most penetrating and justifiably accusatory of questions.
But not even they, who have had the longest to ponder, think and feel and become the most resentful – thought it turns out their reactions when they finally see their dad as adults is far more nuanced and uncertain in ways they didn’t expect – can really articulate how they feel.
It’s that very real, messy humanity, the kind that doesn’t fit into neat emotional boxes, the kind that Hollywood loves but which rarely, if ever, find expression in the world, that defines Run For the Hills which beautifully balances genuine humour and some fairly searing emotional journeys into a brilliantly affecting whole.
You’re laughing one moment at the absurdity of some fairly understandable moment in a very unusual set of circumstances and then really feeling for each of the kids the next as they grapple with some fairly deep questions that really have no easy answers or easily satisfactory resolutions.
Mad took a breath and realized [sic] how easily her lungs pulled air into her chest. She was ready for this. She would not mess it up. She had found her father. He wouldn’t get away from her again, no matter how hard he tried.
What really knocks Run for the Hills out of the park is how well Wilson gets what disconnection and ruptured family feels like.
Even if this has not been your experience, all you need to do is think back to a time when you felt abandoned, betrayed or lost, and you will well understand the mix of acceptance and fury and sad bewilderment that mark the lives of Rube, Mad, Pep and Tom to varying degree usually defined by age and length of separation from life with their dad (who, pre-abandonment, was actually a pretty wonderful dad – but how much does that matter after he’s cut and run?)
As they journey across the States and simultaneously try to get to know each other and prepare for the biggest meeting of their lives, Run for the Hills explores what it’s like to live forever wondering why you were so unlovable that your hitherto living and closely involved dad would just leave you?
And almost worse, not contact you ever again? (That becomes a recurrent issue; yes, they hated losing him as an every day presence in their lives but why did he not even try to contact them even once in the subsequent years?)
It’s a lot of emotional baggage to unpack and Wilson does it so superbly well in Run for the Hills which is funny, heartwarming, thoughtful, heartbreaking and finally as hopeful as any situation this unusual can be; it might seem like an out-there premise but oh the heartfelt, funny and moving things Wilson does it with it as four people gather their lives to date and see if they can find enough answers and reconnection to make the rest of it feel like some sort of healing and a chance to remake wherever it was they were heading to date.