The Last Life

Name: The Last Life
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Claire Messud
ISBN: 9781501986284

Author: Claire Messud

Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld

Unabridged: 14 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/01/2018

Categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Narrated by a fifteen-year-old girl with a ruthless regard for truth, The Last Life is a beautifully told novel of lies and ghosts, love and honor. Set in colonial Algeria, and in the south of France and New England, it is the tale of the LaBasse family, whose quiet integrity is shattered by the shots from a grandfather's rifle. As their world suddenly begins to crumble, 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. Messud skillfully and inexorably describes how the stories we tell ourselves, and the lies to which we cling, can turn on us in a moment. It is a work of stunning power from a writer to watch.

About Claire Messud

Claire Messud is an award-winning novelist and a professor in the Department of English at Harvard University. Her books include The Emperor's Children, The Woman Upstairs, and The Last Life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ursula on September 20, 2007

Like The Emperor's Children, The Last Life created its distinct seductive mood, while still providing recognizable (and relatable) details of, in this case, the life of a teenage girl forced to think for herself. Though I enjoyed, and perhaps related more to, the satire of literary academia in The E......more

Goodreads review by Emily on June 12, 2008

I am in shock that more people did not find this book ridiculously boring. Seriously. I had the hardest time caring about any of the characters besides Sagesse and her brother. I cared a little bit about Sagesse's slutty friend, apparently more than she did; a bit about her summer paramour, again, a......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on January 18, 2008

It's a little hard to connect with Messud's characters. At her best, it's more like being benignly haunted than reading.......more

Goodreads review by Ramona on January 10, 2011

So far, I am not that impressed. Messud shows a lot of skills, but her over-the-top prose (with many words you only come across when studying for your GREs) seems ill-fitting when writing from the perspective of a teenage girl. I find it hard to connect to the protagonist, and now at page 285, I hav......more

Goodreads review by Jan on August 09, 2017

I have not finished it, but I have read enough of the reviews to know that what is frustrating me is not going to change. I might finish it, skim the rest, or give up entirely. There are some lovely worded phrases, but the story itself is not clear or compelling, the much hyped shooting doesn't real......more