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"  The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton) &amp;quot;Classic Chevalier,&amp;quot; pronounces one reader in a near-consensus favoring the latest book by the author of Girl With a Pearl Earring. In it, young English Quaker lass Honor Bright comes to 1850s Ohio and finds herself caught up in the Underground Railroad, through which fugitive slaves were spirited out of the South.  The Last Runaway is a vivid historical novel filled with rich detail about a particularly dark time in American history: the final years of slavery. Chevalier tackles this fraught period by presenting it through the hopeful eyes of Honor Bright, an English Quaker who immigrates to Ohio in 1857. Challenged daily in a foreign world, Bright exhibits bravery, independence, and a defiant spirit. \u2014Jocelyn Kelley, Marblehead, MA Honor Bright could not possess a more potentially iconic name. Yet there is nothing predictable about this novel as Honor travels to Ohio and finds a tenuous home with her sister&amp;#039;s fianc\u00E9, develops a complicated relationship with a slave hunter, and finds comfort in her passion for quilting. As she tries to fit into a new world dictated by mundane yet harsh practicalities, her sympathies, friendships, and very values are challenged. Chevalier has penned a compelling exploration of aspects of the Underground Railroad through the lens of the evolving Quaker community and culture. \u2014Monica Shah, Edison, NJ Chevalier has an impressive imagination for capturing daily life in the time of slavery and the Underground Railroad, and she expertly weaves vivid historical details into the gripping storyline. It is difficult to put down a novel so full of dynamic characters with such difficult decisions to make. \u2014Ginger Pennington, Santa Monica, CA While the backdrop of this story is the Underground Railroad, Honor Bright&amp;#039;s tale of being a stranger in a strange land takes center stage. Chevalier&amp;#039;s characters grapple with their religious beliefs in theory and in reality, and with the challenges of standing up for what they believe in. Though I wished that the Underground Railroad had played a more prominent role in the story, it is an emotional and captivating one. \u2014Carrie Dunham-LaGree, Des Moines, IA The Last Runaway is a great work of historical fiction. Chevalier&amp;#039;s genius comes through in the situations and characters she&amp;#039;s crafted to portray re-imagined people and events surrounding the Underground Railroad. \u2014Jolene Singh, New York City Tweet what you think about the book!  A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks (Henry Holt) A &amp;quot;novel&amp;quot; composed of five unconnected stories ranging from France in 1822 to Italy in 2029, centered on characters stymied by chance and haunted by their choices, this effort by Faulks (Charlotte Gray, Birdsong) was generally deemed lovely but scattered. A Possible Life is described as a novel in five parts, but it is truly a collection of five independent stories linked by the theme of human nature and how we are all inherently connected by our similarities. In stories that take place in different parts of the world and at various points in time, Faulks explores the dark side of our hearts and minds that binds us all, showing how we are all ultimately striving for the same things: peace, hope, and the power to endure. \u2014Jocelyn Kelley, Marblehead, MA I&amp;#039;m in awe of what Faulks managed to accomplish in this novel. Taken separately, these five stories would work beautifully: Each is fully developed and captures the essence of a life and its possibilities. Taken together, however, they have a compounding brilliance. This book will resonate for years, as it prompts you to ponder the choices people make about their lives as well as the choices made for them. \u2014Carrie Dunham-LaGree, Des Moines, IA Faulks&amp;#039; seamless writing is filled with winding threads of masterful and haunting detail.\u2014Monica Shah, Edison, NJ The story &amp;quot;Geoffrey&amp;quot; is perhaps the best piece of contemporary literature I&amp;#039;ve read this year. In these stories, Faulks displays his ability to lay down pain tenderly: His work can portray something deeply sad, yet the writing is a joy to read. \u2014Jolene Singh, New York City Faulks meditates on the fact that while there are varying obstacles that people face across different generations, the obligations of duty versus the quest for freedom and the choice between right and wrong will always be central. While some characters are more difficult to connect with than others, Faulks does a fantastic job of describing the environments that his five characters find themselves in. I truly felt transported to World War II, Victorian London, the year 2029, France in the 1800s, and the emotional 1970s. \u2014Rachel Lawler, Newport, RI In all the tales, the characters wonder what their lives would have been like if one thing had been done differently. This resonates, because everyone has done something and later wondered what would have happened if a different choice had been made. \u2014Natalie Saar, Hollywood, CA Though this collection is subtitled &amp;quot;A Novel in Five Parts,&amp;quot; the link between the five stories that make up A Possible Life is too tenuous to allow it to read like a novel. The format means that the narratives get yanked away after too few pages, which makes it difficult to fully commit to any of the stories. By the end, it is obvious that the common themes of life, love, and destiny run through each story, but reaching that destination is a little exhausting. \u2014Ginger Pennington, Santa Monica, CA  Astray by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown) Donoghue follows up her extraordinary novel Room with these stories about wanderers and border crossers, each tale based on a scrap of history ranging from colonial Massachusetts to the Ontario of the 1960s. A few readers lavished praise on this collection, but most were more respectful of it than wildly enthused. In this story collection, Donoghue creates a slew of multifaceted characters based on true historical stories. Captured in beautifully illustrated settings that range from Cape Cod in 1639 to London in 1854, these wanderers come alive with great humanity, each one at the cusp of a life event that indicates they&amp;#039;ve gone &amp;quot;astray.&amp;quot; At the end of each story, Donoghue provides a brief note about the factual history of the story&amp;#039;s players, making these melancholy, uniquely written tales a compelling read. \u2014Ginger Pennington, Santa Monica, CA Astray is a collection of historical tales linked by themes of immigration, struggle, adventure, and independence. Throughout Astray we are given glimpses into particular moments in history through the eyes of an outsider. Donoghue&amp;#039;s poetic prose and rich attention to detail bring these characters to life on the page. \u2014Jocelyn Kelley, Marblehead, MA I wouldn&amp;#039;t say that these are love stories, but rather stories of what love and compassion can compel us to do. The way Donoghue jumps into each tale makes us feel as if we&amp;#039;re in the thick of the relationships between the characters, experiencing their emotions along with them. \u2014Rachel Lawler, Newport, RI Donoghue does a brilliant job of bringing to life so many different characters that it feels like reading a collection of short stories written by several authors with rich and varying perspectives, rather than one. \u2014Natalie Saar, Hollywood, CA Donoghue has a gift for imagining rich, specific details to fill in the contextual backstories that are rarely told in newspaper clippings. In &amp;quot;The Widow&amp;#039;s Cruse,&amp;quot; Donahue cleverly extrapolates an O&amp;#039;Henry-style ending from a 1730s news story about a woman&amp;#039;s disappearance. In &amp;quot;The Hunt,&amp;quot; she manages to bring some elements of human interconnection to a brutal wartime episode in New Jersey. Each tale is, in its own way, a gem. \u2014Monica Shah, Edison, NJ While Donoghue does have an expansive imagination, the stories she produces here fail to ignite the depth of emotion she strives to portray. A promising, yet disjointed effort.\u2014Zhanna Kutsenko, New York City Tweet what you think about the book! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/books/reviews/a12547/new-novels-january-2013/>