Tracy Chevalier

Honor Bright

This is how I imagine the main character, a young English Quaker who emigrates to America in 1850.

Oberlin, Ohio

This town was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. Always a radical place, Oberlin College was the first to admit women and African Americans.

The Sick Room

Many 19th-century American houses had “sick rooms” off the kitchen because someone often had a fever and needed tending. This one is at Hale’s Farm, Ohio.

Desperate measures for desperate times

Henry "Box" Brown was a slave who mailed himself to freedom.

Tracy’s quilt

In researching the novel, I learned how to quilt the way my heroine would have, and made this all by hand.

Quakers have no formal creed.

Their unity is based on shared understanding of the "Inner Light" in each person and a shared practice of silent worship.

NPR, 17 January 2013

"...beautifully written and offers much for the reader to savor." Read more.

Washingtonian, January 2013

The Last Runaway’s greatest strength is how it subtly poses ethical conundrums... When our world is in flux, The Last Runaway reminds us, it’s our principles that guide us home.” Read more...

USA Today, 8 January 2013

“With compelling characters and swift pacing, The Last Runaway adds a worthy new chapter to a story that has consumed generations.” Read more...

Toronto Globe and Mail, 25 January 2013

"...a fast-paced, satisfying read, with Chevalier continually adding riveting details to keep the narrative rolling...thorough research appears to be the hallmark of her work, lending it greater credibility and depth." Read more

The Times (London), 23 Feb 2013

"Chevalier places her heroine at the heart of all this, constructing a synergy between character and plot that makes this novel exquisitely complete. Her narrative framework is as tight and as well thought-out as one of the Quaker quilts that Honor works on..."

Read more ...

The Independent, 1 March 2013

"...her best since Girl with a Pearl Earring." Read more

The Express, 15 March 2013

"a gripping and potent novel which shows Chevalier at the height of her powers" Read more

Publisher's Weekly, 10 December 2012

“Chevalier’s thought-provoking, lyrical novel doesn’t allow any of her characters an easy way out.”

Read More (spoiler alert: a LOT of the plot given away!)

The Last Runaway