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Camden Public Library warmly welcomes New York Times bestselling author Jessica Shattuck, for a book talk on her latest title, Last House, in conversation with local writer Laura Bonazzoli. This event will take place in the library’s beautiful and historic Reading Room and is free and open to everyone.
Books will be for sale from Hello Hello Books with an opportunity to get them signed.
Please RSVP below to reserve your seat!
An emotional tour-de-force and sweeping story of family, environment, and hope, Last House (published by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins) is Jessica Shattuck’s first novel since her breakout New York Times bestseller The Women in the Castle. Now Shattuck turns her attention from postwar Europe to postwar America, wrestling with the hubris of American empire in the middle of the twentieth century.
For readers of Ann Patchett, Ann Napolitano, and Maggie Shipstead, Last House is both intimate and sweeping, written with sophistication, historical precision, and emotional truth.
Spanning multiple generations and nearly eighty years, Last House tells the story of one American family during an age of national confidence and moral clarity. World War II veteran-turned-oilman (and occasional CIA collaborator) Nick is determined to provide a bright future for his family and help bring “progress” to the Middle East. Plagued by growing fear of nuclear destruction, his wife Bet encourages their purchase of “Last House”, a secluded country escape far from the threat of global instability. The house serves as a refuge for Nick and Bet and for their children, who are later swept up in the radical counterculture movements of the late 1960s. Within its walls, the generations struggle to reconcile convictions about equality, war, and oil —and what it means to be American.
“A richly detailed, slow-burning family saga distinguished by incisive psychological insight and masterful research. . . Shattuck is such a good writer, giving us swaths of cultural and historical background as gracefully and intelligently as she parses the emotional depths of her characters. Every note in the novel rings clear and true.”
— Kate Christensen, New York Times Book Review
Jessica Shattuck is the New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle; The Hazards of Good Breeding, a New York Times Notable Book and finalist for the PEN/Winship Award; and Perfect Life. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Glamour, Mother Jones, and Wired, among other publications.