About the Author

Tracy Chevalier is the author of ten novels, including At the Edge of the Orchard, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring, an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. Born in Washington DC, in 1984 she moved to London, where she lives with her husband and son.

Reviews

Praise for The Last Runaway: ‘I have always admired Tracy Chevalier's un-showy brilliance, and this moving story of a young English Quaker girl trapped between duty and conscience in 1850s Ohio is the best thing she's written since Girl with a Pearl Earring’ Rose Tremain The Last Runaway is a joy to read. Chevalier handles the intersection of two stories – those of pioneering Quakers and escaping slaves – with verve, imagination and, above all, compassion’ Maggie O’Farrell ‘A brave, warm-hearted, moving book; the characters are well-drawn and credible; the local colour meticulously detailed’ Joanne Harris ‘By far her best book since Girl With A Pearl Earring if not better’ Amanda Craig ‘Chevalier places her heroine at the heart, constructing a synergy between character and plot that makes this novel exquisitely complete… addictively compelling… Honor Bright deserves a sequel’ THE TIMES ‘Her best since Girl With a Pearl Earring… as a serious novel about a genuine moral dilemma, it is highly recommended’ THE INDEPENDENT ‘Chevalier immerses herself in period and place. Her research, as always, is meticulous and lightly worn… an entertaining read’ THE GUARDIAN ‘Chevalier’s eye for the telling detail brings it vividly to life. As simple and plain as a Quaker bonnet, but, like a Quaker soul, it contains a hidden light’ LITERARY REVIEW ‘A gripping and potent novel which shows Chevalier at the height of her powers’ THE EXPRESS ‘Tracy Chevalier has found a subject that both fascinates and moves her and the result is this quietly powerful and gripping novel’ THE MAIL ‘An accomplished historical novelist, and she successfully evokes the texture of life in the antebellum Midwest’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Quiet, home-loving, and principled Honor Bright agrees to accompany her more adventurous sister across the Atlantic to 1850's Ohio, to where Grace's fiance has immigrated. The journey is miserable physically and confusing culturally, and when Honor finally arrives at their destination, she is sick at heart as well. Forced to make choices for which she is unprepared and to face challenges to her lifelong belief in the innate equality of all races, Honor matures into a strong woman worthy of respect. Kate Reading narrates the book beautifully, perfectly portraying the timid English girl making mistakes and learning from them. Reading's voice becomes rougher with the American pioneers-louder and harsher for the exacting Judith Haymaker, more relaxed and higher pitched for Belle, the whiskey-drinking milliner. Verdict This is a recording listeners will not want to end. Highly recommended. ["Chevalier's (The Girl with the Pearl Earring; Remarkable Creatures) writing continues to have that can't-put-it-down quality, and her change in settings from Europe to 19th-century frontier America is a welcome one. Highly recommended," read the starred review of the New York Times best-selling Dutton hc, LJ 12/12.-Ed.]-Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Colonial Williamsburg Fdn. Lib., VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.