The Long Run to Love

Florenz Dombey’s The Long Run to Love is the sixth installment of The Willow Chronicles, an expansive historical romance spanning 1963 to 1969, set against the turbulent backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and Seattle’s maritime culture. The novel follows Willow “Billie” Benton, a tall, fiercely independent shipping magnate who built the container empire Pinctada Holdings, and Sidai “Sid” Ackroyd, a brilliant six-foot-tall Maasai economist appointed to an endowed chair at the University of Washington. Their chance meeting at the Olympic Hotel ignites a passionate, clandestine romance that defies era taboos regarding race, gender, and sexuality. From their adjacent houseboats on Portage Bay to the tragedy of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination and humanitarian missions in Biafra, the narrative traces their love through professional triumphs, housing discrimination battles, and the perils of visibility in an America that criminalizes their desire.

Dombey’s characters are unforgettable, and while they may experience deep emotional pain, the author has the wit and perspective to make them relatable, genuinely flawed, and at times quirky. Willow combines athletic prowess—she is a former competitive miler—with sharp business acumen in a male-dominated industry. Sidai balances her Maasai heritage with Oxford-honed wit, delivering charm through British colloquialisms (“terribly,” “bollocks”) and uninhibited humor regarding their sexual chemistry. The novel explores profound themes: the “cage” of social norms versus the “world of fang and claw” outside it, racial discrimination in Seattle’s real estate market, and the courage required for same-sex love when sodomy laws threaten imprisonment. For readers who enjoyed the glamorous, hidden history sweep of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or the feminist workplace battles of Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry, Dombey’s work offers a similarly immersive blend of romance, social justice, and maritime adventure.