Book announcements are gratifying because they give a sense of completion to the thing (even if that’s not strictly the case, since edits are ongoing). The other handy aspect of a press release is that it explains what the book is about in a nice, succinct paragraph, something which feels very far away for most, if not the entire, writing process. So, straight from The Bookseller:

A History of Running Away follows three women at different stages of their lives: Jasmine, a female boxer who falls foul of a ban on the sport in 1980s Ireland; a gynaecologist in present-day Dublin, who is increasingly frustrated by the constitutional ban on abortion; and Ali, in Maryland, whose mother has recently died and escapes from the grandparents she didn’t know she had. (The Bookseller)

And the ‘elevator pitch’: A History of Running Away is about “running away, growing up and finding out who you are”.