Book excerpt: An award-winning Israeli author’s novel “is a cross between Run Lola Run and Oliver Twist . . . [with] an urgency that becomes almost unbearable” (New Yorker). David Grossman’s Someone to Run With tells the story of a lost dog, and the discovery of first love on the streets of Jerusalem, portrayed here with a gritty realism that is as fresh as it is compelling. When awkward and painfully shy sixteen-year-old Assaf is asked to find the owner of a stray yellow lab, he begins a quest that will bring him into contact with street kids and criminals, and a talented young singer, Tamar, engaged on her own mission: to rescue a teenage drug addict. A runaway bestseller in Israel, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor: “It’s time for Americans to fall in love with Someone to Run With.” “Part urban survival adventure, part YA romance, and part mystery.” —Booklist “Grossman’s most entertaining book yet.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review