HarperCollins has announced it is publishing Lawrence Hill’s new novel, The Illegal. The book is slated for publication in Canada on Sept. 1.

The Illegal, Hill’s tenth publication, follows a young marathon runner who flees from a repressive government and is forced into hiding. In a press release, Hill says, “I have been thinking about the lives of undocumented refugees since meeting Sudanese expatriates in West Berlin in the 1980s. In Canada, the United States and around the world, millions of people have to survive with a huge question mark over their lives. Will they be deported? Persecuted? Executed? What do their lives look like while they are hiding in rich nations and trying, against all odds, to get on with their lives? These questions became my obsession and the inspiration for The Illegal.”

The deal was arranged by HarperCollins senior vice-president and executive publisher Iris Tupholme and Hill’s agent Ellen Levine of the Trident Media Group.