Last Life

A mesmerizing novel from the acclaimed author of The Emperors Children that is as artful as it is affecting (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).Moving between colonial Algeria, the south of France, and New England, The Last Life is Claire Messuds masterly (Wall Street Journal) sophomore novel of lies and ghosts, love and honor. When shots from a grandfathers rifle shatter the LaBasse familys quiet integrity, long-hidden shame emerges: a son abandoned by the family before he was even born, a mother whose identity is not what she has claimed, a father whose act of defiance brings Hotel Bellevuethe family businessto its knees. Unforgettably narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard for truth, The Last Life is a phenomenally controlled tour de force (Sarah Kerr, Vogue).Messud textures her novel with all the sensory pleasures that bind us to life, and fills it with characters who helplessly respond to each others unspoken signals and nuances.The New YorkerOriginal, intense, and gripping.Gabriele Annan, New York Review of Books