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Saturday, 3 August 2024

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

 


From Goodreads

The stunning new novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn ideas into actions.

My thoughts

This was a recent local Library Reading group read.  I thought that I had read other books by this author in the past, but I can't see any reviews on Goodreads or my blog.  Perhaps I have read them before I started keeping track of the books read in this way, who knows!

Telling the story of Honor a young Quaker, who has been brought up in Dorset, England.  She emigrates to America in search of bigger and better things.  However, what she encumbers on arrival in America soon becomes an eye opener to her in more ways than one.  It's not long before the things that she was brought up believing in are tested.  How will she cope as her principals are tested?  

This was an interesting read that dealt with religion, bigotry, slavery, community, relationships and America in the 1800's.  I enjoyed the story, but it didn't meet with quite as much a reaction with some of the group.   

 As I was reading this story, it reminded me quite a bit of Little House on the Prairie that I enjoyed watching back in the day.  

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