Run, Hide, Repeat

Winner of the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

Longlisted for British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 2018

Shortlisted for the 2018 Evelyn Richardson Non-fiction Award

Shortlisted for the 2018 Atlantic Book Awards – Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

Shortlisted for the 2018 Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors


An unforgettable family tale of deception and betrayal, love and forgiveness

Pauline Dakin spent her childhood on the run. Without warning, her mother twice uprooted her and her brother, moving thousands of miles away from family and friends. Disturbing events interrupt their outwardly normal life: break-ins, car thefts, even physical attacks on a family friend. Many years later, her mother finally revealed they’d been running from the Mafia and were receiving protection from a covert anti-organized crime task force.
  But the truth was even more bizarre. Gradually, Dakin’s fears give way to suspicion. She puts her journalistic training to work and discovers that the Mafia threat was actually an elaborate web of lies.  As she revisits her past, Dakin uncovers the human capacity for betrayal and deception, and the power of love to forgive.
    Run, Hide, Repeat is a memoir of a childhood steeped in unexplained fear and menace. Gripping and suspenseful, it moves from Dakin’s uneasy acceptance of her family’s dire situation to bewildered anger. As compelling and twisted as a thriller, Run Hide Repeat is an unforgettable portrait of a family under threat, and the resilience of family bonds.