TheNew York Timesbestselling author ofThe House Girlexplores the lives of four siblings in this ambitious and absorbing novel in the vein ofCommonwealthandThe Interestings.
โThe greatest works of poetry, what makes each of us a poet, are the stories we tell about ourselves. We create them out of family and blood and friends and love and hate and what weโve read and watched and witnessed. Longing and regret, illness, broken bones, broken hearts, achievements, money won and lost, palm readings and visions. We tell these stories until we believe them.โ
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work,The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time.
It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblingsโfierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fionaโemerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected.ย Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices theyโve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love.ย
A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family,The Last Romanticsis an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can loseโand sometimes rescueโthe ones we love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful meditation on the power of storiesโhow they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.