A review by jdukuray
The Last Life by Claire Messud

5.0

This is very much my favorite of the three books by Claire Messud that I've read (The Woman Upstairs, The Emperor's Children). It is a coming of age story, in which I found much that seemed familiar--which is saying something, since it takes place in the South of France, is about the complicated history of France and Algeria, includes a handicapped brother and a suicide. Messud has a great ear for dialogue, family tension, and just how fraught it is to be an adolescent.