Maybe it’s the fact that we keep trying to move to a post racial America, or that we’ve re-elected a black President. Maybe it’s the movie Lincoln, or Django or that we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. But the subject of slavery, of freedom and the personal cost of moving from one to the other is suddenly very much a part of the public meme. Add to this list a sweeping new historical novel from the celebrated author fo The Girl With The Pearl Earning. Tracy Chevalier, in her new novel The Last Runaway moves from European to American history; the 1850s, quakers and a network helping slaves escape to freedom. My conversation with Tracy Chevalier: