The Last Assignment
  • Published: 28 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781728299860
  • Imprint: Sourcebooks Landmark
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $37.00

The Last Assignment

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From bestselling author Erika Robuck comes the perilous and awe-inspiring true story of Dickey Chappelle as she risks everything to show the American people the price of war through the lens of her camera.

From bestselling author Erika Robuck comes the perilous and awe-inspiring true story of award-winning photojournalist Dickey Chapelle as she risks everything to show the American people the price of war through the lens of her camera.

Manhattan, 1956.

Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier, combat correspondent Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military accreditation revoked, her marriage failing, and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at an opportunity to work with an international refugee association—one with intelligence ties. In the aftermath of a refugee rescue that goes wrong, a flame is lit deep inside Dickey— to survive in order to be the world's witness to war from the front lines.

Never content to report on battles unless her own boots are on the ground, Dickey and her camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands, to raging seas, to luscious jungles, covering the plight of those suffering from humanity's endless cycle of violence. Told in an alternating prose and epistolary format, The Last Assignment takes readers along on Dickey's missions to the Hungarian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, and the earliest days of the war in Vietnam, revealing one woman's extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger.

And it's along the way, in Dickey's desire to save the world, she realizes she might also be saving herself.
  • Published: 28 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781728299860
  • Imprint: Sourcebooks Landmark
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $37.00
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About the author

Erika Robuck

ERIKA ROBUCK is a national bestselling author of novels Sisters of Night and Fog, The Invisible Woman, The House of Hawthorne, Fallen Beauty, Call Me Zelda, Hemingway's Girl, and Receive Me Falling. Erika was once named Annapolis’ Author of the Year, and she resides there with her husband, three sons, and a feisty miniature schnauzer.

Also by Erika Robuck

The Last Twelve Miles
Sisters of Night and Fog
The House of Hawthorne
Fallen Beauty
Call Me Zelda
Hemingway's Girl
See all

Praise for The Last Assignment

In The Last Assignment, Erika Robuck brings to life Georgette 'Dickey' Chapelle, a fiercely daring photographer who dedicated her life to capturing history through her lens. In an era when female photographers were often overlooked, Dickey took extraordinary risks—crossing borders in Hungary, confronting communists in Cuba, parachuting into Laos—all in pursuit of one goal: to tell the truth to the American public. Vivid and compelling, rich with historical significance and sharp-edged like Dickey’s own haunting snapshots, The Last Assignment offers not only a gripping account of the tumultuous events of the 1960s, but also serves as an elegiac anthem for a woman who lived boldly on her own terms, and lives on as a legend.

Weina Dai Randel, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Last Rose of Shanghai and The Master Jeweler

Dickey Chapelle covered the Cold War like no other—risking her life and sacrificing her safety to tell the stories of those fighting for freedom on the front lines. Robuck's sweeping prose gives new depth to this larger-than-life figure, whose legacy deserves a place in the pantheon of American heroes. From start to finish, The Last Assignment pulls readers into Dickey's heart-pounding narrative of war and peace.

Lorissa Rinehart, Historian and critically acclaimed author of First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent

The Last Assignment exquisitely captures the daring exploits and risks of real-life combat correspondent Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle in a way that is relatable, heartfelt, and impactful. Erika Robuck is a master of her craft in detailing the lives of real women who have left their mark on history and this book is no different. Brilliantly researched and written with incredible skill and heart, this story is a testament to the power of Dickey’s determination to share the suffering of those in need with the world.

Madeline Martin, New York Times and International Bestselling Author of The Booklover's Library