The Last Life by Messud, Claire - 1999

PICADOR, 1999. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Good. Previous owners inscriptions: Yes, by author. Book Condition: Very Good. Jacket condition: Good+. Published: 1999. 1st Edition: Yes. Pages: 376. Description: "The Last Life" is the story of the teenage Sagesse LaBasse and her family, repatriated French Algerians. It is set in colonial Algeria, the south of France, and New England. The LaBasse family had always believed in the permanence of their world, in which stories created from the past had the weight of truth, in which cynicism was the defence against disaster. but when shots from the grandfather's rifle shatter an evening's quiet, their world begins to crumble, the reality to emerge: the bastard son abandoned by the family before he was even born; Sagesse's handicapped brother for whom the family cared with Catholic dignity; her American mother who pretended to be French; the trigger-happy grandfather; and Sagesse's father, whose act of defiance brought down the Hotel Bellevue, her grandfather's house built on rock, to its knees. Observed with a fifteen year old's ruthless regard for truth, "The Last Life" is a beautifully told novel of secrets and ghosts, love and honour, the stories we tell ourselves, and the lies to which we cling.