Product Description

When Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes meet at a writers' festival in Toronto, it is the first time they have seen each other for twenty-six years. Theirs is a story bound by the irresistible pull of true passion - a love which begins in Massachusetts in the early 1960s, is rekindled in Kenya in the mid 1970s and which is about to play out its astonishing final episode...Written with reverse chronology, Anita Shreve's new novel is a haunting story of mesmerising beauty, with a strong narrative pull that inescapably draws the reader in, and leaves its most stunning revelation until the very last pages. Brilliantly ambitious and powerfully written, THE LAST TIME THEY MET is a tale not so much of life, but of a life not lived.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29278 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Anita Shreve, who has long since cornered the market with her finely written romantic thrillers, has proved herself a true mistress of the genre with her latest novel, The Last Time They Met. Since her 1994 debut with novels such as Eden Close and Where or When, Ms Shreve has come a long way, skilfully blending both historical and more up-to-date story-lines into her novels alongside recurrent themes that transcend time and place: love, loss and death. Long-time Shreve fans and newcomers alike will find The Last Time They Met a gripping read but it is also rather unusual as it features, as one of its two main protagonists, a minor character from a previous novel, The Weight of Water, and attempts to explain how and why he becomes the man he is. This is rather fascinating and if you've read the original novel in which Thomas, the alcoholic poet, features, you'll recognise him and feel immediately drawn to him. And if you haven't, by the end of this book, you'll want to read more.

The Last Time They Met is based on a tale of childhood sweethearts and a theme Shreve writes about so passionately and with such conviction one can't help wonder if she spends her nights dreaming of her first love. Ambitiously, she tells her tale of Thomas and his lover (Linda) from the present backwards, travelling from a poet's convention in Toronto via politically repressive Nairobi to Massachusetts and small-town 1960s' schooldays. The grand passions, the loveless marriages, abuse, lost children and, most heart-wrenchingly, the utterly wasted lives unfold majestically and with intense pathos. If the greatest test of a good book is not just that you can't put it down, but that it haunts your memory for far longer than it takes to read, then this is a cracking read with an end that will leave you reeling. --Carey Green

Review
'A luminous combination of stylistic simplicity and emotional complexity, revealing her to be a supremely elegant anatomist of the human heart' THE TIMES; 'A love story, pure and simple, told with exquisite delicacy ... a powerful story, a compulsive read' DAILY EXPRESS; 'Beautifully written, this is a fascinating insight on love, loss and forgiveness' SUNDAY MIRROR

About the Author
Anita Shreve is the author of eleven bestselling novels all published by Little, Brown and Abacus.

Customer Reviews

A beautiful love story and a hell of an ending
I have read a number of Anita Shreve's books now and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. It seems that a recurring theme of her books is that 'love hurts' - there is lost love, painful love, love that is imperfect or flawed in some way. 'The Last Time They Met' is no different - Thomas and Linda appear to be made for each other but will fate actually permit them to be together forever...?

The ending is truly astonishing - I just didn't see it coming and it is literally the last paragraph so make sure you don't sneak a peek at the back page!! I didn't go back and read the whole book again like other reviewers but I certainly flicked back through various pages and re-read chunks of it to see if there were ANY clues or how it read differently once you knew what was coming.

The only slight criticism that I would say is that, for me, to begin with, it didn't seem to read as easily as some of Shreve's other books - there seemed to be huge sentences in brackets all over the place which threw me slightly. I think that was more in the Toronto section as it certainly picked up with the move to Africa - it's only really a minor niggle anyway.

This is highly recommended - a wonderful narrative, beautiful love story and that ending....WOW!

Of her others, try Eden Close - a cracking read.

a blissful journey of love and loss
Anita Shreve is one of the greatest writers i have ever read. This book had me glued to my seat unable to put it down. It is a story of true passion, love that transcends time and distance and it has a truly awesome ending. The characters are real and Shreve writes them with such elegance, delving into their vulnerabilities and emotional complexities with a style that is all her own. I would highly recommend any of her books.

The nature of fiction writing
I'm a book-a-day reader, drawing from all genres of fiction from English classics to American contemporary, which is where I picked up Anita Shreve. And couldn't put her down again. Because of the sheer volume of my reading, I have an unfortunate tendency to forget a book once read, and I never, ever re-read, but "The Last Time They Met" was an extraordinary exception. I was quite literally gobsmacked by the ending and had to immediately re-read the book, putting the days plans on hold ... This book should become a classic. Should be on the A-level syllabus.