The Last Runaway - Tracy Chevalier

This book seemed initially as though it was specifically designed to appeal to me, being a historical novel about a Quaker woman, with themes including entering a new culture as an immigrant, and the difficulty of balancing family loyalties, personal desires, and the demands of conscience. Despite all this promising material, I found the novel unsatisfying, although the depiction of a 19th century Quaker community and their attitudes to slavery was indeed fascinating. The main problem was that the central character never quite came alive for me, seeming to veer oddly between impulsive actions and coldly calculated ones, and I never quite managed to see her choices through her eyes.