This year’s Plymouth READS book is “Marathon” by Brian Freeman. The committee picked the book because it shares an important message of awareness and fostering community engagement. Readers say it’s a page-turner of a book.

“The issues that it confronts and the way it raises awareness and reminds us to all pay more attention to fake news and be careful,” says LuAnn Svendsen, who is on the Plymouth READS committee.

The book imagines what might happen if something similar to the Boston marathon bombing of 2013 happened in Duluth. Like Boston, it involves someone who is falsely accused of setting off the bomb.

Author Brian Freeman says he wrote the book with a mission in mind.

“It’s done what I was hoping it would do, which is to really spark that conversation and it’s great for book clubs,” explains Freeman. “Because it really encourages people to be bouncing ideas back and forth. Ultimately, they are just talking about the issues.”

For the past few weeks, people have participated in discussions and events that surround the material in the book. They have heard from distance runners and law enforcement about crisis events. People will get a chance to hear from the author himself in an event on April 11.

Keep up with information on the Plymouth READS website.