Who remembers Girl with a Pearl Earring?  Tracy Chevalier wrote that international bestseller in 1999 which was adapted into a movie in 2003 with  three Academy Award nominations.  Her newest novel is again historical fiction but for the first time has ventured into pioneer America.  A major focus of the abolitionist movement, Oberlin, Ohio is the setting for Honor Bright’s story of arriving in America from England after a very difficult ocean crossing.  Knowing she can never survive the incapacitating seasickness again, Honor must make the best of life in the harsh landscape of this backward land.  Grace, her restless sister, corresponded with and agreed to marry an older man who had started a new life in America.  Honor decided to accompany her after suffering the heartache of being released from her engagement to a local Quaker man who found another to love.  Grace dies suddenly from yellow fever and Honor must find her way among the Friends believers in Ohio.  Much of the story deals with the Underground Railroad and how it affected families.  We feel compassion for the runaway slaves and how lives were put in jeopardy for helping to move them to safety in Canada. The austere life of a rough existence in this new land with few friends is felt by the reader as Honor remembers the comforts of home.  The Last Runaway is an experience of heartache and hope as we live life through the mind of a Quaker looking for the Light in all, even the slave catchers.