A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
“A richly observed novel, both ambitious and welcoming.” — Meg Wolitzer
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
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A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration … Parade • PureWow • Bustle
A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose—and sometimes rescue—the ones we love.
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.
A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, The Last Romantics is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories—how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.
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An exploration of grief and family dynamics, The Last Romantics follows Fiona Skinner and her siblings across decades as they deal with their father’s death and what they refer to as The Pause, when their mother lost herself in her grief. The story is told as a retrospective from the future; renowned poet Fiona is asked to share about the origin of her most famous poem and she takes us back in time to her childhood. Gorgeous writing and an incredibly engaging story.
It’s one of my favorite novels of the year, made more memorable in part because I was facing a loss in my own family at the time. It helped to see how the Skinners handled their grief (or didn’t) and think through my own grief patterns.
CW: grief, death of a parent, drug use, addiction, death of a loved one
Both intimate and epic, an exploration of family, love, doubt, and irony–and ultimately, hope. Recommended!
A beautifully-written saga that covers the lives of four siblings from childhood to the end of their lives. I enjoyed the story and underlined many thought-provoking passages. It’s melancholy in tone, and happiness is always fleeting, but that’s also what feels very real about the story.
This book is the story of the Skinner children and their life before and after “the pause”. The over-riding theme is love and all the ways we can experience it- as parents, siblings, and friends. I thought the characters were strong and the book was very thought provoking.
Wonderful book. I had no expectations before reading it, from the library, but rushed out and bought my own copy because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the characters. This book is why I read.
I love a good family saga and The Last Romantics was one of the best I have read it a long time. It seems most sagas are historical, but this one was more contemporary because it was told by Fiona from 2079 looking back on her life, so most of the story took place in the late 70s through about 2010. It helps that those were memorable years for me as well. The story is primarily about three sisters and a brother, all with different personalities, so I believe most readers will be able to identify with one of the characters. This was one book I didn’t want to end.
It was a book with lots of character-building and it instilled in the reader a “what’s gonna happen next” experience over and over.
The Last Romantics is a one-of-a-kind novel, one of the best I have read in recent years. It begins in 2079, narrated by the wise 102-year-old Fiona Skinner. The story moves flawlessly from past to present and back again. Fiona is four when her dentist father suddenly dies. Her life as well as her two older sisters and her older brother were turned upside down. They lose their comfortable middle-class home and are forced to live in small shabby rental house many blocks away. Their mother falls into an untreated deep depression, referred to as her “two-year Pause” through-out the novel. The oldest sister was 11 and did her best, but there were still nights they went to bed hungry. The Skinner children were on their own. The pace of The Last Romantics is perfect as it examines the many dimensions of love. The relationships of the siblings through their lifetime are full of convoluted ins and outs with plenty of give and take that are necessary to for families to work. The wonderful character development and carefully created multifaceted plot will evoke and reform your understanding of family. Beautiful conclusion, I loved this book.
Expert handling of family dynamics, mental illness, trauma, addiction. Characters that you will come to know, and carry with you beyond the page. One of Conklin’s more brilliant devices is her use of the narrator’s own composition notebook, which show us the development of the narrator herself, while also adding detail and imagery to the story.
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I absolutely loved “The Last Romantics” by Tara Conklin. I have to admit that while I was looking forward to reading it, I was not quite sure what to expect Well, it blew me away! I made a New Years resolution to slow down and really savior the books I read. I tend to want to sit down and read a book in one sitting. This book made me slow down. The writing flows, at times it is poetic making this an easy book to read. The character development was rich and insightful. Not only did I find myself empathizing and rooting for The Skinner family, I also found myself thinking about my own family dynamic through the years at times it was quite emotional. The ebb and flow of the story built tension and emotion with each new conflict. I found myself up late way past my bedtime wanting to finish a chapter. I have not stopped thinking about these characters since I completed the book.
“The Last Romantics” is a sweeping family saga, rich and intricate, heartbreaking and evocative. We meet the Skinner family, the parents, Ellis Avery, and Antonia (Noni), both in their early 30’s, and the children; Renee 11, Caroline 8, Joe 7, and Fiona 4.
“Once Upon a time….there was a father and a mother and four children, three girls and a boy. They lived together in a house like any other house, in a town like many others towns and for a time they were happy….And then there was the Pause. Everything started there. Our mother didn’t mean for it to happen, she didn’t, but this is a story about failures of love, and the Pause was the first.”
We follow the lives of Skinner family through the death of one parent, which is then compounded by the isolation and neglect of the remaining parent. The young children, who are braver than they know, must band together and take care of one another and their remaining parent for several years. This created a dynamic which follows the siblings through The Pause and Adulthood, in which each siblings taking on a “lifelong obligation of love” and responsibility that is impossible to uphold. “The Last Romantics” is an epic multi-generational family drama and unforgettable tale of heartbreak and joy; at once beautiful and devastating that explores the bonds of love, forgiveness and the dynamics of family.
There are so many things to love about “The Last Romantics” It was impossible to put down. And it has the best surprising ending I’ve read in a long time! I have Ms Conklin’s first novel “The House Girl” on my Kindle along with 3000 other books, and it is moving to the TOP of my TBR.
Reminds me of the television show, This is Us, oddly enough. It’s the story of family, unpredictable family but left quite a few loose ends.
This was is a wonderful family drama and that had me invested in the lives of the siblings and Noni and the love and never ending deep ness of family and all that we go through in a lifetime.
Thank you to William Marrow for the Advanced Copy.
This is a story of four siblings, their lives together and their lives apart. ‘The Last Romantics’ is a story told from the youngest sibling, Fiona, point of view. This was truly a moving and beautiful story. The way that depression was described as a “Pause” was a perfect way to handle what their mother, Noni was going through after she lost her husband. Also how the children banded together to help one another when their mother simply could not. I did not see it as a bad thing considering they really did not have family near them. I felt that ‘The Last Romantics’ was a beautifully written, well-told story of a love that siblings have for each other and for their family.
I loved this book. It was beautifully written with well developed characters and a dramatic storyline. I highly recommend it.
A lovely story about the bonds of family
A multi-layered family saga of life, love, betrayal and survival.
A renowned poet, 102 yrs. young Fiona, takes us on a journey of discovery as she and her siblings struggle with very adult-like surroundings while grasping the light and right of childhood all the while growing into adulthood in search of self through longing, achievement and loyalty as well as the discovery of secrets and what to and/or not to do with them.
This story will lead you through family saga issues that not only lend too the unpredictable, ambitious and uncertain, but the intimacy and intensity of family.
Tara Conklin has written a story you can relate to with its interesting storyline, well-defined characters, and a realness that touches the reader on several levels.
I found this read to be enjoyable, a tad bit “wordy” but written in a way you don’t feel lost- one that keeps you intrigued as to its outcome.
I thank William Morrow for the gift of this ARC copy.
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Novels & Latte Book Club
”…this is a story about the failures of love, and the Pause was the first.” from The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
Fiona Skinner, 102 years old and a renowned poet, returns to the podium for the first time in twenty-five years. A girl arises from the audience with a question: Who was Luna?
The Luna of Fiona’s most famous poetry inspired women to name their daughters Luna. And this girl, named Luna, asks for her mother the question–who was Luna?
Fiona wrote the poem “a lifetime ago,” “back when I was a romantic,” she responds. The girl presses. And for the first time ever Fiona reveals the story of her family and the secret she has held in her heart for so long.
“Once upon a time,” she begins, “there was a father and a mother and four children…and for a time they were happy.”
And like Fiona’s audience, enrapt, I was carried away by her story of the ways love carries us and fails us and how we turn from each other and how we carry each other. Her story of love’s truth, it’s bitterness and how it is the only thing that makes life endurable, and our deeply held illogical hope, which experience tells us is fantasy, that love can and will save us.
And that is all I am going to tell you. I still feel the warm heartache, the fullness and pressure in my chest, the awful truth I encountered in this fiction.
Look around at your beloved family, the people you have given yourselves to, the people who cut the deepest and brought the fullest healing, who made you strong and brought you to your knees. The people you endeavor to protect and save, the people you have lost and haunt you. And tell me–what is love?
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review
The Last Romantics is a family saga about the Skinner siblings, whose father died when they were young, followed by their mother’s depression, leaving them to fend for themselves while growing up. The book spans decades and follows the four siblings, their lives, relationships, and misfortunes, all colored by the childhood tragedy of loosing their father to a heart attack and mother to depression.
Although the Last Romantics is beautifully written, I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. I found it boring for the most part. I liked the first part of the book, the childhood years and I enjoyed the ending but found the big chunk in the middle very slow-paced. I don’t read a lot of family sagas, but I wanted to give this book a chance because I love the cover and I’ve heard many great things about author’s previous book, The House Girl. I’m just not the right reader for this book.
A triumph of storytelling, an ambitious examination of the failures of love and how we, against all odds, find a way to survive…. A complex, resonant work that will reshape your understanding of family.