Review: The Last Runaway

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed Tracy Chevalier's The Last Runaway. I've been a fan of her writing since I read Girl With Pearl Earring years ago.

In The Last Runaway, I got to learn about the Quaker faith and way of life, quilting, the Underground Railroad, and early America, four topics (among many, many others) which I knew practically nothing about.

The premise of the story: Honor Bright decides to accompany her sister Grace to America. Grace is to marry a Dorset Quaker immigrant and Honor is set to live with them in Ohio, at least until Honor can find a suitable Quaker man for herself.

After tragedy befalls Grace on the way to meet her betrothed, Honor is left in a precarious situation: She is alone and knows no one in America, and she must do something with her life. The man who was to be her brother-in-law offers her a place to stay, but the arrangement is a difficult one and cannot last.

The story unfolds as does Honor's life in the new land.

I found Chevalier's The Last Runaway an inspirational tale that offered a heartwarming read, teeming with believable characters, realistic settings, and dramatic situations centered around one woman's attempts to live up to the values of her faith, even as she is challenged by her new family's ingrained prejudices.

In The Last Runaway, Chevalier explores the ideas of freedom and slavery, faith and non-belief, America and England, history and current events, love and its many varieties. Each one of those dichotomies would make a worthy topic for a novel, and we are lucky that Chevalier is talented enough to include them all in one story.

Once again, this story ended too soon and I cannot wait to read Tracy Chevalier's next novel.

~JT~


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