Someone to Run With

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

• Assaf – 16 years old boy, amateur photographer. He is described as a tall and large-bodied boy, although harmless and quite timid. During his journey in Jerusalem he discovers his inner strength, courage and power. Assaf's parents are absent throughout the book, travelling to United States to visit Assaf's sister, recently engaged to an American.
• Tamar – 16 years old girl, opera singer. She is an observant, realistic girl who is not afraid to speak truthfully, even if the truth is harsh and ugly. Living in a very cold house, Tamar writes in a journal about her philosophy of life. She plans ahead her retrieval of Shay from Pesach's shelter, and even risks and buys him heroin so he might cooperate during the first days of his withdrawal.
• Dinka – A yellow-labrador mix, Dinka is Tamar and Shay's dog. Dinka is the link between Assaf and Tamar. Dinka leads Assaf throughout Jerusalem and guides him to her. While she is a dog, Dinka is an extremely important character in the book. Dinka is named after Alice's cat.
• Shay – Tamar's brother, Shay is an 18 years old boy, a gifted guitar player. His own philosophy of life is harsher and darker than his younger sister. Throughout the book it is only Tamar who can understand him and help him. It is indicated Shay ran from home because of their parents, who are cold and distant. He is addicted to heroin, and one of Pesach's stars.
• Theodora – A Greek nun who arrives to Jerusalem many years before the book takes place. Theodora is from a fictional island in the Aegean Sea, and sent to Jerusalem to host the pilgrims, with a vow she will never leave the monastery. Her island, however, sinks to the bottom of the sea after a violent earthquake, leaving Theodora imprisoned in her moanstery. Her monastery has a garden which attracts the attention of a nearby school, in which Tamar is a student. Theodora and Tamar becomes fast friends, and to distract Assaf's chasors, she leaves the monastery after fifty years of enclosure.
• Leah – a restruarant manager and chef, Leah is another one of Tamar's friends. According to the book she is a tall, frightening woman with scars on her cheek, a former member of the crime scene. Tamar worked in her restraurant to earn some money. Leah adopts an East-Asian girl named Noa, to whom Tamar is very attached to.
• Pesach – a mafioso and runs a shelter for street-performers, Pesach is the main antagonist of the book. He manages the street performers across Israel, and takes their earnings in payment. He supplies Shay with heroin, and others with LSD, cigarettes and alcohol. His shelter is in an abandoned hospital, with his parents as hunters for other street-performers. It is hinted that he is a tagret for the police but never caught with incriminating evidence.

One of the main themes in the book is relationship and friendships. Tamar and Shay are close siblings, but while Shay is older, Tamar is the one making the shots throughout the book. While Karnaf and Assaf are not related, Assaf sees Karnaf as an older brother and mentor, a tough man he wants to become. Tamar's best friends slowly grow distant from her as she plans her rescue mission, and she discovers they don't understand the depths of darkness in the city, preferring to remain in sarcastic, ignorant bliss. Assaf breaks up with his best friend, Roee, understanding Roee is using him and bullies him.

Courage is another recurring theme in the book. Assaf, at first a timid and shy person, discovers he can be brave in situations he finds himself. Tamar must be brave to enter the dark side of the city, involved in drugs and crime.

The plot of the book is not linear, and jumps between Tamar and Assaf's plotlines. Occasionally the narrative goes back to provide background for certain characters, like Theodora's backstory or Tamar's distancing from her friends.

The book is full with references to real places in Jerusalem: Zion Square, Lifta, Ben Yehuda street and Na'halat Shiva. Other places, like Theodora's monastery and Pesach's shelter, are inspired by real places but fictional. The book also mentions several Israeli songs and poems, like "how does one little star dares", "marionettes", "the flute" and more. In the original edition in Hebrew, a short list of the songs mentioned is provided.

One of the street painting by Leora Wise, near Zion Square

Spread in a number of landmarks there are street-painting of the book's occurances, as imagined by the artist Leora Weiss, in cooperation with the book's author, David Grossman.

The book has received several reviews in international press.[1][2]

The book was adapted into a film in 2006 of the same name.[3]

In 2019 the book was banned in Russia.[4]