The Last Runaway

This book by Tracy Chevalier (the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring) is about the Underground Railroad in America in the 1850s. And although it was published in 2013 it nonetheless feels contemporary and topical.

The Last Runaway is the story of a young Quaker woman, Honor Bright, who travels to America from Dorset and settles with her future brother-in-law in Ohio. Advised by everyone to find a husband, she soon marries and becomes part of a farming family.

The farm in Ohio is on the route of the Underground Railroad, a clandestine network that helps runaway slaves escape to freedom from the South to Canada. Honor has sympathy for the slaves seeking freedom, but offering assistance would put her in conflict with legislation which prohibits giving them assistance.

It’s not long before she finds herself torn between her conscience and a promise she had to give to her in-laws, and this moral dimension to the story grows in importance as you read.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is fairly fast-moving and convincing. The characters are well drawn and the locations vividly described. And I guarantee that after reading this you’ll look at quilts with new eyes!

And if you do read and enjoy this book, keep a lookout for 'The Underground Railroad' by Colson Whitehead. It’s a novel about the same subject, set in the same period, but told from a 15-year-old slave’s point of view.
Review by: Juno