The Last of Her Kind

The paths of two women from different walks of life intersect amid counterculture of the 1960s in this haunting and provocative novel from the National Book Award-winning author of THE FRIEND

It is Columbia University, 1968. Ann Drayton and Georgette George meet as roommates on the first night. Ann is rich and radical; Georgette is leery and introverted, a child of the very poverty and strife her new friend finds so noble. The two are drawn together by their differences; two years later, after a violent fight, they part ways. When, in 1976, Ann is convicted of killing a New York cop, Georgette comes back to their shared history in search of an explanation. She finds a riddle of a life, shaped by influences more sinister and complex than any of the writ-large sixties movements. She realises, too, how much their early encounter has determined her own path and why, after all this time, as she tells us, 'I have never stopped thinking about her'.

'A brilliant, dazzling, daring novel' Boston Globe

'A subtle and profoundly moving novel about friendship, romantic idealism and shame' O, The Oprah Magazine

'An unflinching examination of justice, race and political idealism that brings to mind Philip Roth's AMERICAN PASTORAL and the tenacious intelligence of Nadine Gordimer' New York Times

“A brilliant, dazzling, daring novel”

A brilliant, dazzling, daring novel - Boston Globe

A passionate honesty grips the heart of The Last of Her Kind ... A subtle and profoundly moving novel about friendship, romantic idealism and shame - O, The Oprah Magazine

An unflinching examination of justice, race and political idealism that brings to mind Philip Roth's American Pastoral and the tenacious intelligence of Nadine Gordimer

- New York Times

Nunez ably and effectively evokes the political and social atmosphere of the times . . . Nunez takes a jeweller's eyepiece to racial and sexual politics, to the lasting impact of male violence and to the painful fragility of family bonds . . . an enormously absorbing novel with real heart to it, and a vivid recreation of a seismic and lastingly influential time - Observer

A remarkable and disconcerting vision of a troubled time in American history - The New Yorker

Sigrid Nunez is the New York Times bestselling author of The Friend, winner of the 2018 National Book Award, and of seven other novels, including Salvation City, The Last of Her Kind, and What Are You Going Through. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages.

The paths of two women from different walks of life intersect amid counterculture of the 1960s in this haunting and provocative novel from the National Book Award-winning author of THE FRIEND It is Columbia University, 1968. Ann Drayton and Georgette George meet as roommates on the first night. Ann is rich and radical; Georgette is leery and introverted, a child of the very poverty and strife her new friend finds so noble. The two are drawn together by their differences; two years later, after a violent fight, they part ways. When, in 1976, Ann is convicted of killing a New York cop, Georgette comes back to their shared history in search of an explanation. She finds a riddle of a life, shaped by influences more sinister and complex than any of the writ-large sixties movements. She realises, too, how much their early encounter has determined her own path and why, after all this time, as she tells us, 'I have never stopped thinking about her'. 'A brilliant, dazzling, daring novel' Boston Globe 'A subtle and profoundly moving novel about friendship, romantic idealism and shame' O, The Oprah Magazine 'An unflinching examination of justice, race and political idealism that brings to mind Philip Roth's AMERICAN PASTORAL and the tenacious intelligence of Nadine Gordimer' New York Times

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