Kevin Wilson Returns with Wild and Touching Family Road Trip in “Run for the Hills”

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here, crafts a captivating literary fiction/family drama, Run for the Hills, about a bunch of half-siblings who go on a cross-country trip, in a PT Cruiser, to search for their estranged father.

Thirty-two-year-old Madeline Hill (Mad) has spent most of her life on her family’s farm in Coalfield, Tennessee, working alongside her mother and quietly coping with the absence of her father. One morning, her quiet life is upended when Reuben (Rube), a blond, 42-year-old man from Boston, Massachusetts, shows up at the farm claiming to be her half-brother. He discloses that their shared father, Charles Hill, also disappeared from his life 30 years earlier.

After losing his mother to cancer, Rube hired a private investigator to search for the elusive man and discovered that he is now living in California and has fathered multiple children across different states before disappearing from each of their lives.

An Unexpected Family Road Trip

Driven by the need for closure and curious about her other siblings, Mad agrees to join Rube on a cross-country road trip to track down their half-brothers and sisters. They drive to Oklahoma, where they meet Pep, a 21-year-old college basketball player, and continue to Salt Lake City, Utah, to find 11-year-old Tom.

Each new sibling brings a new perspective on the man they barely know; a man who changes his name and reinvents himself with every new family. With each discovery, they begin to piece together a mosaic of a man whose presence, even in absence, shaped their lives drastically.

As the siblings travel together, they experience growing pains of forming a makeshift family. They laugh, clash over differences and slowly open up about their emotional scars. Though strangers at first, their shared abandonment creates a unique bond. The trip becomes less about confronting their father and more about reclaiming their stories, forging connections they were denied and discovering how to move forward together.

Impactful Story, Powerful Writing

Wilson’s writing style in Run for the Hills is a mixture of wry humour, raw emotions and tender vulnerability. His prose is conversational and often edged with dry wit that reveals the inner workings of his characters through their sardonic observations and internal dialogues.

The humour isn’t just for laughs; it’s also a coping mechanism for characters as they grapple with abandonment and struggle to find their identities. Tensions in the book are built through the small, emotionally loaded moments — hesitations at the door, long silences during car rides, and fragile conversations about shared pain.

I really enjoyed reading this story. It flows naturally, and I found myself smiling at one line and tearing up at the next. It’s clear that Wilson writes with a lot of heart and is not afraid to show the raw, painful parts of being human, especially regarding family.

Each time a new sibling was introduced, I felt the sting they experienced: the bittersweet reality of gaining a sibling while being reminded that their dad had simply gone off to be a father to someone else. The emotional weight of that mixed feeling was beautifully portrayed and deeply touching.

Humorous and Emotional Read

Rube was my favourite character. As the oldest sibling, he carried a quiet sensitivity that made him stand out. It broke my heart when he panicked after he overheard his siblings talk about ending their trip, and finally decided to confess his darkest thoughts. Although Mad was the main character, Rube really stole my heart with his strength, vulnerability and determination to bring everyone together.

And then there’s the father, a complicated man whose actions were impossible to justify. Abandoning his children without so much as a goodbye is beyond heartbreaking. It takes a certain level of heartlessness to leave your family, start over and never look back.

Run for the Hills is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, with just the right balance of humour and emotional depth. It reminded me that healing doesn’t always come from the person who hurt you, but sometimes, it also comes from people who were hurt just like you, and those who share the pain with you.