Book review: The Last Runaway, By Tracy Chevalier

In her latest historical novel, Chevalier creates a world every bit as memorable as in Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Honor Bright, a young Quaker from Dorset, decides on a whim to accompany her sister, Mary, to America. When Mary dies on the journey out, she's left with nothing but her faith and a bag of quilts.

Everything feels alien from the heat to the landscape to the style of needlework.

Eventually settled in Ohio, Honor becomes involved in aiding runaway slaves on the Underground Railway. A taut read, the novel paints pioneer-ing life at its most raw.