The New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl explores the lives of four siblings in this novel in the vein of Commonwealth and The Interestings.
An elegantly penned family saga that stretches for nearly a century ... It is the strength and fragility of the siblings’ bond, the evolving nature of love that is at the core of Conklin’s novel. And Fiona, with her uncommon insights, her lyricism and steady pacing, feels like the perfect narrator. Gracefully rendered, The Last Romantics focuses on the familiar theme of family with great originality.
Told through a retrospective lens, the tales of these four carry an almost mythological weight, and Conklin’s wise, sharp prose makes this book the sort you want to press into the hands of someone you love as soon as you finish ... Conklin examines her characters’ lives with generosity and an unflinching eye for the complexities of love and family ... Fans of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections will find similar pleasures in the intelligence and empathy on display here. Conklin manages to rove between viewpoints and decades without ever veering into cleverness or self-consciousness. Instead, The Last Romantics is moving and utterly engrossing, a juicy tale of the heart that never insults its reader’s intelligence.
Beautifully written ... Despite spanning almost a century, The Last Romantics never feels rushed. Conklin places readers in the center of the Skinner family, moving back and forth in time and allowing waves of emotion to slowly uncurl. Perfectly paced, affecting fiction.
