Waiting for the Queen: A Novel of Early America

By Joanna Higgins

A surprising friendship develops between Eugenie, an escapee from the French Revolution, and Hannah, a Quaker girl, when they unite in the cause against slavery in this adventuresome tale of true nobility set amidst the rugged, eighteenth-century, Pennsylvania wilderness.

Fifteen-year-old Eugenie de La Roque and her family barely escape the French Revolution with their lives. Along with several other noble families, they sail to America, where French Azilium, as the area came to be known, is being carved out of the rugged wilderness of Pennsylvania. Hannah Kimbrell is a young Quaker who has been chosen to help prepare French Azilum for the arrival of the aristocrats. In this wild place away from home and the memories they hold dear, Eugenie and Hannah find more in common than they first realize. With much to learn from each other, the girls unite to help free several slaves from their tyrannical French owner, a dangerous scheme that requires personal sacrifice in exchange for the slaves' freedom.

A story of friendship against all odds, Waiting for the Queen is a loving portrait of the values of a young America, and a reminder that true nobility is more than a royal title.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Release date: Aug 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781571318770

Joanna Higgins

Joanna Higgins has taught at colleges in the United States and in England and is the author of the novels Dead Center and A Soldier’s Book, which was a finalist for the 2007 Michael Shaara Award for Civil War fiction. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Award for fiction, and her short stories appear in several anthologies, including the Best American Short Stories series.