<DIV><I>The Runner</I> tells the remarkable true story of a drifter and petty thief named James Hogue who woke up one cold winter morning in a storage shed in Utah and decided to start his life anew. Re-imagining himself as a self-educated ranch hand named Alexi Indris-Santana who read Plato under the stars and could run a mile in under four minutes, Hogue applied and was accepted to Princeton University, where he excelled academically, made the track team, became a member of the elite Ivy Club, and dated a millionaire&#8217;s daughter.<BR> <BR>Echoing both <I>The Great Gatsby</I> and <I>The Talented Mr. Ripley</I>, the story of Hogue&#8217;s life before and after he went to Princeton is both an immensely affecting portrait of a dreamer and a striking indictment of the Ivy League &#8220;meritocracy&#8221; to which Hogue wanted so badly to belong. Drawing elegant parallels between Hogue&#8217;s ambitions and the American myth of self-invention, while also examining his own uneasy identification with his troubled subject, author David Samuels has fashioned a powerful metaphor for the corruptions of the American dream, revealing his exceptional gifts as a reporter and literary stylist.</DIV>