Someone to Run With

Someone to Run With (מישהו לרוץ איתו / Mishehu laruts ito, 2000) is a thriller novel by Israeli writer David Grossman. The English edition was published by London by Bloomsbury in 2003, . The book has been translated by Almog Vered and Maya Gurantz. Synopsis Earnest, awkward and painfully shy, sixteen-year-old Assaf is having the worst summer of his life. With his big sister gone and his best friend suddenly the most popular kid in their class, Assaf spends his days at a lowly summer job in Jerusalem City Hall and his evenings alone, watching television and playing games on the Internet. One morning, Assaf's routine is interrupted by an absurd assignment: to find the owner of a stray yellow Labrador. Meanwhile on the other side of the city, Tamar, a talented singer with a lonely, tempestuous soul, undertakes an equally unpromising mission: to rescue a young drug addict from the Jerusalem underworld... And, eventually, to find her dog. Grossman's most popular work to date, a bestseller hailed by the Israeli press and reform politicians like Shimon Peres for its mixture of fairy-tale magic, emotional sensitivity, and gritty realism, Someone to Run With explores the life of Israeli street kids and the anxieties of family life in a society racked by self-doubt. But most of all, Grossman evokes the adventure of adolescence and the discovery of love, as Tamar and Asaf, pushed beyond the limits of childhood, find the objects of their quests, find themselves, and find each other Plot Assaf Assaf is a 16-years-old boy from Jerusalem, working during the summer vacation in City Hall as his parents are abroad. Assaf is requested to locate the owners of a lost dog without a license. During his search Assaf comes to learn about Tamar and her life, the owner of the dog named Dinka. During his search a connection to Tamar has been made.