Last Life

Moving between colonial Algeria, the south of France, and New England, The Last Life is Claire Messud's &quote;masterly&quote; (Wall Street Journal) sophomore novel of lies and ghosts, love and honor. When shots from a grandfather's rifle shatter the LaBasse family's 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 Bellevue-the family business-to its knees. Unforgettably narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard for truth, The Last Life is a &quote;phenomenally controlled tour de force&quote; (Sarah Kerr, Vogue).&quote;Messud textures her novel with all the sensory pleasures that bind us to life, and fills it with characters who helplessly respond to each other's unspoken signals and nuances.&quote;-The New Yorker&quote;Original, intense, and gripping.&quote;-Gabriele Annan, New York Review of Books