Genre: Contemporary Adult Fiction
Length: 368 pages
Audiobook Length: 12 hours and 14 minutes
First Published: 2019
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Publisher’s Description
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 siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. 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 they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love.
Quotes from The Last Romantics
The greatest works of poetry are the stories we tell about ourselves.
Our mother taught us how to protect ourselves from hurt but not how to determine what might be worth the risk.”
If you live long enough and well enough to know love, its various permutations and shades, you will falter. You will break someone’s heart. Fairy tales don’t tell you that. Poetry doesn’t either.
Some people will choose, again and again, to destroy what it is they value most.
Because when the lights go out and we sit waiting in the dark, what do our fingers seek? Who do we reach for?
About Tara Conklin
Tara Conklin is a writer and former lawyer. She has written three novels: The House Girl, Community Board, and The Last Romantics. Conklin currently lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family. Visit the author’s website →
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