Away Running by David Wright

by David Wright

Matt, a white quarterback from Montreal, Quebec, flies to France (without his parents' permission) to play football and escape family pressure. Freeman, a black football player from San Antonio, Texas, is in Paris on a school trip when he hears about a team playing American football in a rough, low-income suburb called Villeneuve-La-Grande. Matt and Free join the Diables Rouges and make friends with the other players, who come from many different ethnic groups. Racial tension erupts into riots in Villeneuve when some of their Muslim teammates get in trouble with the police, and Matt and Free have to decide whether to get involved and face the very real risk of arrest and violence.

Genres: Sports, Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Teen

Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

This is David Wright, born 1964.

He also publishes under the name David Wright Faladé.

Reviews

[Gretchen Primack · Rating 5 out of 5]

It feels like a lot of YA fiction these days is set in fantasyland, so when I come across something grounded in the real world and unafraid to face its intensity and grit, I get excited. Away Running is just such a book. It's set in Paris and explores the tensions between the primarily white city and its primarily North and Sub-Saharan African suburbs through the eyes of two high-school-age North American football players, Matt (from Montreal) and Freeman (from San Antonio). The novel is inspired by real events, and the unflinching way it goes about telling the story is compelling and educational. It doesn't talk down to teens, and it doesn't shy away from complexity of character or situation. I could see this book in a classroom or a vacation bag equally easily.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

*This is a spoiler free review based on an ARC of Away Running*

Away Running exceeded my expectations by bringing to life a diverse cast of characters living through real life situations I never would have anticipated based on the books description.
When I first started reading Away Running and realized it had two points of view I was a little upset, but the authors pulled off the different views very well and made it easy and understandable reading for both. I found the diversity, of not only the two main characters but of the entire cast, fantastic and very well put together.
If you enjoy American Football and diverse characters, with well written plot twists I would suggest you pick up a copy of Away Running as soon as it is released!

[Savannah]

This book is great in combining cultural differences. Matt and Free are both from North American and they go to France to play football. They have to get used to how they do things there. It is really cool to see how certain areas of France are treated and it amazes me that they are like that. My favorite character is Free because he has overcome a lot of hard stuff and he is still exceeding in the things he loves. This book is really good for someone that likes a little of the culture and American football. the beginning starts with Matt leaving Canada and going to France. He didn't tell his parents. Matt just needed a break so he took one and that's kinda the main thing I like about it. Matt also has a great want to win and do his best. I would defiantly recommend this book to fellow readers.

[Jaxson]

My book is called Away Running. The author is David Wright. I liked this book because it has to do with football. Matt and Free play American football in paris. My favorite part of the book was when the two players were working hard alongside their captain. I also didn't like some of the book. Free faces a lot of racism in the book and I felt bad for him. Some of my questions during the book were still not answered at the end. My least favorite part was probably some of the racial issues during the book. Overall I would give this book a 7 out of 10. Do I recommend it? Depends on what person you are.

[Rich in Color is now on StoryGraph]

Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Before I went to Paris I had a conversation with a writer friend about the Black ex-patriots who lived in Paris during the Harlem Renaissance because they felt that Black Americans were more accepted there than in the US. My friend asked, “so there is no racism in Paris?” Both my traveling buddy and I responded at the same time, “There is, but it’s different, especially towards Black Americans.” We went on to explain the racial tension that existed toward North Africans and other immigrants who live in Paris and how, for some reason, Black Americans were treated differently. So, when I received the email from David Wright about reviewing his book, I got excited because a) it was set in Paris and I was excited to relive through words a city I come to fall in love with, and b) the theme of the novel explored the very topic of my conversation with my friend.

I remember watching with horror and dismay at all the nights of riots that occurred in Paris after the three boys were electrocuted, which is the event Away Running is based on. Touched by the event, Wright and Bouchard chose to tell the story of the three boys and the rising tensions that led to the riots through the eyes of Freeman (Free) Behanzin and Mathieu (Matt) Dumas. Both young men are football stars in their hometowns on the brink of playing college ball. They also feel weighted down by family pressures and see their time in Paris as an opportunity to vacation while spending time doing something they loved. What they receive is an education that changes them greatly.

Instead of starting with the tragic event that causes the riots, Wright and Bouchard have us spend time getting to know the three boys in their friendship with Free and Matt. At the beginning, I wasn’t too fond of Matt because his privilege, even though he went to join the Villeneuve team specifically, was flat out annoying. His complete ignorance towards race and people of color experience life was expected because I knew that was part of his growth, however his inner thoughts towards Free really got on my nerves. He would judge/make fun of the way Free would talk in English and in French. He was making the same judgements towards Free that irritated him when other people would judge his Villeneuve friends. Though, Free did eventually call him on it, but I felt there was a missed opportunity for Matt to reflect on what Free said to him. I feel like some moments within Matt’s head as he grows to understand race and privilege through everything he experiences would have endeared me towards him more. Free also had to explore his own prejudice through the novel as he had preconceived notions about Arabs that bordered on Islamaphobia. His comes from his own personal experience with his father being deployed in Iraq, however, he does come to the realization that he is wrong and changes his views. It is through a touching moment with a friend’s father that really changes Freeman.

I like books that don’t insult the reader, books that don’t sugar coat the ugliness of life, and I’m glad that Wright and Bouchard chose to show the reality of life for North Africans living in Paris. When people think of Paris, they think of the beautiful City of Lights (and it is) but there are also dark parts to it that if you focus on just glittering city, you can miss what the true city is like. I remember taking note of some of the darker parts, the riots actually on my mind, so this novel brought all of those thoughts back. Wright and Bouchard did not hold back in showing the ugly racism that exists and how there are basically two sides to Paris. Both Matt and Free, because of their privilege (Free is there initially through a student exchange program and lives with a host family) live in the neighborhoods of Paris that we see in movies with the quaint architecture and beautiful streets. Villeneuve is the opposite of that, and the way the residents are treated is deplorable. Wright and Bouchard could have chosen to soften the blow, but they didn’t. The racist experiences Matt and Free witness (and experience), including the riots, are brutal and raw. The authors respect their readers, as they respect their characters, by giving us what life is really like in the City of Lights.

Recommendation: If you love football and or love Paris, this is a good book for you.

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

AWAY RUNNING is the last of three books I recently got from Inter-Library Loan as my local libraries did not have a copy. I’ve been excited to read this book as it is an earlier YA book by David Wright Faladé (although here going by David Wright), the author of BLACK CLOUD RISING. That book was in my Top 5 of those I read in 2022, and part of what I loved about it was the nuanced way that it approached race, racism, and race relations. What it suggested was obvious but also felt strangely revolutionary: different people have different experiences and views about their racial identities and how it relates to their social identities, and that’s okay! These are complicated and weighty things to grapple with and not everybody is going to have the same outlook. I anticipated more of the same realist approach to race in this book, which I knew was about two boys, one white and one Black, experiencing the effects or racism in Paris.

In fact, I knew going in that the book was not only by Wright Faladé but also by Luc Bouchard. This all obviously calls to mind the book ALL AMERICAN BOYS by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, which similarly tells the story of a white and a Black boy both wrapped up in an incident of racist violence, alternating chapters between the two characters’ perspectives. I expected alternating chapters between the perspectives of the two boys at the center of this book (Matt and Free) and, sure enough, that’s what I got (not “alternating” in a literal sense of the word, but the perspective did shift back and forth between them throughout the book). It's not clear to me whether Wright Faladé and Bouchard literally wrote one character’s chapters apiece, as I believe Reynolds and Kiely did. Probably? Regardless, because of the similarity, it is hard not to judge the two books against one another.

In general, I’d say that Reynolds and Kiely’s book is the stronger of the two; Jason Reynolds in particular is a spectacular writer. There were some strong scenes here, but not as many specific powerful quotes. A big difference between the two works is that ALL AMERICAN BOYS has its inciting event occur early on and it remains the center of attention throughout the book; AWAY RUNNING lets racial tension mostly simmer throughout the majority of the book, only coming to a head toward the end. I’m not sure that one or the other way of approaching the topic is better, except that as a result of not approaching its central topic head-on AWAY RUNNING instead spends an inordinate amount of time discussing American football. Matt and Free are both players on an American football team in Paris and a large part of their narrative is about the mechanics of their games. I found it apropos that I was reading this book over the weekend of Super Bowl Sunday, but in general I was kind of turned off by this aspect of the book as I am not a sports-type guy.

On the other hand, this mode of storytelling allowed the casualness of racism to come to the fore. Early on, Matt (the white kid) boards a plane to Paris on a lark to meet up with his friend Moussa (who he calls “Moose”). When he arrives, Matt stays at his cousin’s apartment but when Moose and his friends come by an older woman in the building insists that visitors aren’t allowed, despite having no problem with Matt being there. Matt is aware that her motives are likely race-related; he leaves with Moose and joins him with several of his friends, who are all Black. Matt feels uncomfortable there, but recognizes his behavior is not far removed from that of the woman at the apartment and feels ashamed. He feels even more ashamed when the football team’s coach arrives: “He was white, and I hated that I found relief in this.”

There’s another scene where the boys all try to get into a bar. Matt and Free are both let in by the bouncers, but Moose and several other players are kept out. Moose argues their motive was racist, but Matt doesn’t believe it because the bouncers themselves were African and Free was let in. He doesn’t appreciate that racism isn’t a mere black/white divide, but colorism and classism feeds into it as well. On the other side, though, his friend Sidi insists that he is oppressed by racism while leering at police and openly smoking marijuana outside of a McDonald’s. Yes, racism exists and is severe, but there is also a lack of self-awareness in the way Sidi invites people to see him as a threat. Again, this nuanced take on the subject—I wouldn’t call it “both sides”-ing it, but acknowledging that there are contours to the situation—is refreshing.

There are a couple of very strong scenes as well. One is Free’s recollection of when he found out that his father had been killed by an IED in Iraq. The way his family members react to the news is heartbreaking. The other strong scene takes up most of the ending of the book. After walking through an abandoned construction site (I was really hoping this was going to turn into an ANIMORPHS book at this point, but alas, no), the boys are stopped and held at gunpoint by police who insist they were vandalizing or stealing things. Three of the boys—Moose, Sidi, and Mobylette—run from the police, who chase them to an electrical station. The boys feel pressured to go inside and end up electrocuting themselves and dying. This is apparently something that happened in real life, too, which Faladé and Bouchad lifted for this book! It also, on a completely separate note, called to mind for me THE SURVIVORS by Alex Schulman, which I read in January of last year. The deaths of these boys leads to a well-attended protest march against police violence. A similar thing happens in ALL AMERICAN BOYS.

The difference between the two, though, is that ALL AMERICAN BOYS ends on a hopeful note. The march is the culmination of the dialogue about racism and shows its characters standing together for what is right. I think there is an uneasiness in the moment, if I recall correctly, because of the presence of police at the outskirts but the focus is on the march itself. AWAY RUNNING goes in a different direction. During the march, police officers smirk and snicker at the participants, leading to a confrontation. Looking for any excuse, one of the officers beats a kid who challenged him on his snickering. This leads to pandemonium, as the streets turn into a war-zone not unlike the kind we saw throughout America after the killing of George Floyd: cops beating, pepper spraying, shooting rubber bullets, and firing water cannons at people regardless of whether they were doing anything wrong; resisters throwing rocks at the police, burning vehicles, tearing apart storefronts in their frustration. It’s intense! And frankly, it’s certainly more realistic—a more sobering view of what could happen—than the optimistic ending of ALL AMERICAN BOYS.

Not that optimism is bad! It’s nice to end on a hopeful note, the idea that we can change the patterns we’ve built. AWAY RUNNING tries to have some of that, too. During the chaos, Free wonders what he might have done differently to prevent the situation from unfolding. “Or just what might I have done, period? Because it sure can feel like you did nothing when something like this happens.” He feels responsible for the deaths of his friends, but realizes that’s not right: he’s accountable to them, not responsible for what happened to them. After the night of violence has quieted down, the football team has their final game of the season. They, and the other team, appear in suits and ties and mutually forfeit the game in honor of the players they lost. It’s a nice thought, but that scene on the football field did not have the catharsis it seemed to be going for. It didn’t sell the optimism of rivals coming together and the moment felt curiously weightless.

Afterward, Free expresses that he thought coming to Paris would be a dream but it seems now more like a nightmare. Matt disagrees. “There’s always the good and bad, the black and white, both,” he says. This does seem to be the philosophy that Faladé espouses in the two books I’ve read from him, but putting it in these terms feels too simplistic. Yes, there’s both but it’s not just that things are black and white, but that they are both these things at the same time, that it’s fluid and in a different light could be read a different way. It’s a far more complicated, robust conversation than Matt’s thin explanation admits.

So. When I initially finished the book, I wrote that I was awarding it 3.5 stars. I’m probably still there after having written this review. There are some very powerful moments and I do appreciate the way the authors’ story about “the promise and the failures of multiculturalism and the accountability we all bear for one another,” as they describe it, is woven throughout the book. But on the other hand, I feel like it fails to achieve the positive note it prefers to end on and the emphasis on football in the middle part of the book was of no interest to me. It was good, though, and I’m rounding up to four because the parts that were good were very good.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eager to escape his mother’s business school plans for him, Canadian teenager Mathieu runs away to Paris to play American football.

Freeman, an American visiting Paris on a class trip, opts to extend his stay to play football as well rather than return home where the loss of his father is keenly felt.

I enjoyed the friendship that developed between these two, particularly their silences and how they didn’t shy away from calling each other out on stuff, those difficult moments really cemented their bond, giving it an authentic feel.

I thought it was really well done how Free and Matt’s individual life experiences played into their response to the social injustices and the tragedy that befalls their friends of North African decent. Chapters alternate between the two boys, and each POV proved compelling. Matt with his naivete, his tense interactions with his divorced parents, tentative relationship with Aida, and his urgency to right wrongs that at one point spirals out of control. Then there was Free, who had a way with words even when those words were hackneyed French, his lovely relationship with his host family, and his moment of connection with a friends’ father that was entirely unexpected and touching.

I do wish there had been one more POV. This story is seen through the eyes of two outsiders, it's told compassionately and yes, Free knows racism, but still, a North African voice from inside the community, like their friend Moose, or Aida, who is not only North African, she’s female (and gives a great empowered answer as to why she wears a head-scarf that had me wanting more of her character). I just think that would have added even more depth to an already quality book.

I received Away Running through a Goodreads giveaway.

[Roman Huesman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could you imagine flying to another country without your parent permission as a freshman in high school? In Away Running, Matt our main character is white quarterback that lives in Montreal, Canada and he loves to play football, but his parents want him to focus on school instead of football. This book takes place in Paris, France, while he is living with his sister at college he meets a black football player from texas and they want to join a football team after they become friends.
First, what I learned from the culture of the story is Freeman (the player from Texas) comes from a low income family in San Antonio, Texas. Matt and Freeman join a free team called Diables Rouges and they make many friends from many other ethnic groups. This book has a lot of racism in it and a big riot happens when some of their muslim teammates got in trouble with the cops. Secondly this book appealed to me in a logical way because I love football and I’ve been playing it since I was in third grade, But also after reading it has made me think in a emotional way because how the other teams treated them because they were different. Lastly I noticed the writer use really good dialog, suspense, and believable character. He had great dialog and you could really understand and you never really felt like you didn’t know what was going on. Also he used good suspense by making you give a good viewpoint of the story. Lastly even though it was fiction he still had very believable character and good background for them.
I would recommend this book to other readers if they can handle topics like this because it has a lot of racism. Someone who might like this book is person that like football, but also if they don’t really know what racism is because it teaches them a lot about the topic.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Read because I'm using it in class. The pacing is off to me, and there are parts with too many characters and too much non-responsive dialogue, but it was enlightening about the true events this is based on and racism in France while also being engaging for teens.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canadian boy who goes to Paris and becomes involved with international American football team. I liked the look at the non-tourist side of Paris and the struggles of international refugees in a foreign country (other players, not the Canadian).

[Lindsey Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My students loved this book. I found it a little less appealing mostly due to my lack of interest in French football.

[Lea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and timely. I didn't know about the incident in Paris.

[Calista Pettit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book to be an excellent idea of what it's like to be an immigrant in Paris.

[Connor McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it but it talked too much about race and blamed matt for being white.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racism, police brutality, racism in criminal justice

[Luc Bouchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Away Running follows two very real and likeable seventeen-year-old boys on a trip to Paris. It’s no ordinary backpacking adventure, however.
Mathieu Dumas from Montreal and Freeman Omonwole Behanzin from San Antonio, Texas, take turns telling the story of their pre-university experience playing football américain in the suburbs of Paris. The team they play for, the Diables Rouges, represents the poor (barely fictional) Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-La- Grande, home to many immigrants from North and sub-Saharan Africa. As the season pushes the team toward the national finals, Matt must confront his privileged background and Freeman, or Free as he’s called, struggles to decide how a recent tragedy will define him. Racial tensions mount in a heartbreaking scene that is all too familiar and very relevant to current affairs. Away Running is highly readable and well written. The two authors, David Wright and Luc Bouchard, met playing football in France and have based the book on similar real-life events from 2005. It’s evident they put a lot of thought and work into telling the story. The two boys and their new friends switch between French and English from France, Quebec, and America. It could have been clunky, but it’s deftly executed without being repetitive and adds another layer to their youthful banter. Each sorrow in the book – a casual racist act, an imperfect reaction to it, the sudden loss of a loved one, deep-rooted injustice – is so well-crafted it will bring a more sensitive reader, ahem, to tears. Yes, it’s also football book. But the fast-paced games are told succinctly and there’s plenty of interpersonal drama to keep things interesting for readers who aren’t sports fans. In the end, football gives the two young men “structure … discipline … and help [to] make better decisions.” They need all this and more when Villeneuve-La-Grande falls apart.”
Montreal Review of Books

[Skyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main characters: Freeman (Free) Behanzin- From San Antonio, Texas, has a football scholarship from Iowa State intact with a military father. Goes to France on a foreign exchange student situation.
Mathieu (Matt) Dumas- From Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has a football scholarship from Laval and has divorced parents. Runs away to France and stays with his cousin.
The book starts with the narration from Matt and explains how he wanted to escape the high expectations of his parents just to play football, which is what he loves. The on the other side Free comes on a foreign exchange trip with his school and both find themselves on the football team Diables Rogues in rough Villeneuve-La Grande. They find themselves friends with teammates Moussa (Moose), Sidi, and Mobylette, along with a cheerleader and Sidi's sister Aida, who Matt likes. And trying to figure their way around the city with all the chaos going on.
There is a lot of racial tension which leads to riots involving the people of Villeneuve and the police. While it occurs that Moose, Sidi, and Mobylette are all North African so Matt and Free have to try and fit in with them and embrace their culture. Also, Matt's parents had a very big issue with him running away without permission.
I liked the book because it involved my favorite sport of football and it was very interesting to see how two guys from foreign countries tried to fit into a new city and culture.

[Alex Valencic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made the mistake of trying to read this book between other works, and it made it difficult to get into the story. Once I focused on it, though, I found it very difficult to put down. The characters are full of raw emotion and the bravado of youth that I still remember from my own young adulthood. The world of Villeneuve is one I've never lived in, but I have heard so much from friends who have experienced similar worlds. The back and forth narrative between Matt, a wealthy white French Canadian from Montreal, and Freeman, a poor black American from Texas, keeps you engaged and desperate to know what happens next. This would be an awesome excellent book to read in a high school literacy class that explores issues of social justice!

[libreroaming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both Matt and Free are running away from their problems. For Matt, it is the increasing demands of his mother's expectations sending him from Montreal to play American football in the Villeneuve province of France. For Free, it is a chance to subsume the grief he feels at losing his father in Iraq, where the discipline of the football team keeps him going. Both boys deal with the strange intersection of racism, classism, national prejudice and all the other hardships in addition to being part of an underdog team.

Told in alternating POV, Wright and Bouchard both bring distinct voices to their characters. It takes a little longer to warm up to Matt, and a little digging to get into Free's head when he is dead set against revealing his sadness, but the writing is always authentic. A great book that speaks to a real event with nuance and enough football interest to keep readers going.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book through the library thing web site as a early reviewer giveaway. It was a pretty decent book. Takes place in Paris, and is about a football team with different nationalities. I would say its a young adult book, but good for anyone really. deals with the team and them being more of the lower class over there and people clashing with them due to the different races and lower parts of the suburbs there. Wasn't too bad of a book. I found sometimes tho the french language in it a little hard as I dont speak it. the 2 authors were team mates on a football team as well. it be a good book also for someone that understands that game and likes football.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting plot made even better by the authors having experience in the subject, meeting playing football. I won this in a contest and it was a good read.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Donna Burtwistle-Popplewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic novel! Told from the two protagonists' POVs, Away Running tells the story of the 2005 spring season of competitive football in France. Determined to make his own decisions about his immediate future--separate from those of his highly motivated Montreal family--senior, Matthieu Dumas, takes off to Paris to join the Diables Rouges. Already known to some of the players through international football camps, Dumas finds himself as the only white player among the North African and Arab players from the Villeneuve neighbourhood of the team's clubhouse and practice field. Meanwhile, Freeman Behanzin, an African-American senior from San Antonio Texas, is on a school exchange and happens to catch a Diables Rouges practice. When he is offered a position on the team, he reconsiders the prospect of returning to his family who is coping with the recent death of his father, killed by an IED in Iraq.

The book follows team's season and the development of the very different members of the team into a unified group. However, the racial tensions in France interfere with and challenge Matt and Free's friendship and their connection to their teammates. Based on real events of 2005, the story unfolds in a smart and compelling fashion. I read this book in one sitting--awesome.