Eight-lane runaways

Right from the starting block, you’ll realise that Eight-Lane Runaways is nothing like any graphic novel you’ve read before. As you’re thrown into a fantastical world of endless tracks, you meet a team of young people briskly attempting to complete their calling, whether it be finding their lost cats, earning one last self-made merit badge, or flying a kite to the moon. One runner relies on her poncho to giver her direction. Another deals with a suddenly missing appendage. There’s also algebra dogs, a juice institute, and a helping network that consists entirely of miles of string that proves that no matter how far apart, the friends you can rely on are the ones you met while pacing life’s twisty-turny trails. Henry McCausland, a published illustrator in place like The Guardian and The New York Times, brings a flowing page layout that showcases his elaborate landscapes and thrilling kinetic energy, matching them with a laugh-out-loud idiosyncratic sense of humour. Whether you read it as a fever pitch surrealistic Olympic games or a touching tale of working together, Eight-Lane Runaways is sure to be one of the most talked-about debuts of 2020.