The Last Summer (of You and Me) Hardcover - 2007

by Ann Brashares

With a narrative perspective that's a perfect blend of knowingness and innocence, a terrific ear for the rhythms of speech of teenaged girls, and genuine stylistic flair, Ann Brashares turned an outstanding, unusually satisfying novel for young adults into a generation-defining phenomenon. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series-now three novels strong-has sold more than five million copies, has ridden bestseller lists solidly since publication, has inspired a successful feature film, and has won the hearts and minds of legions of teenaged girls-and their mothers-with its uncanny wisdom, emotional truth, and magical appeal. In what is sure to be one of the most eagerly anticipated events of this publishing season, Brashares now makes her debut as a writer of perceptive, resonant, utterly engaging women's fiction.

The Girl of Lost Things tells the story of Gracie Martin, a New Yorker who has a gift for returning lost objects to their rightful owners. It's a talent that plays off her inherent curiosity about things and the people attached to them. Gracie's also fond of tidy endings. But as the years go by, her unusual, glancing experiences with people-strangers, really-and their belongings point up the sort of meaningful connection that's eluded her in her own life. She swears off her vocation-that is, until she finds a backpack left behind in a taxi, full of mystery and promise, and convinces herself that, based on its contents, its (male) owner holds the key to her ultimate happiness.

Wise and enchanting, with a heroine as endearing as the four young women who made up the "Sisterhood," this novel is poised to capture not only the girls who spent their young adulthood reading Ann Brashares, but their mothers, big sisters, cousins, and friends, too.