Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Last Romantics: A Novel
    The Last Romantics: A Novel
    The Last Romantics: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Last Romantics: A Novel

    Written by Tara Conklin

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the New York Times–bestselling author of The House Girl comes a novel about our most precious and dangerous attachment: family.

    In the spring of 1981, the young Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, dreamy Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—lose their father to a heart attack and their mother to a paralyzing depression, events that thrust them into a period they will later call “the Pause.” Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the siblings navigate the dangers and resentments of the Pause to emerge fiercely loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the Skinners find themselves 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 what, exactly, they will do for love.

    Narrated nearly a century later by the youngest sibling, the renowned poet Fiona Skinner, The Last Romantics spans a lifetime. It’s a story of sex and affection, sacrifice and selfishness, deeply held principles and dashed expectations, a lost engagement ring, a squandered baseball scholarship, unsupervised summers at the neighbourhood pond and an iconic book of love poems. But most of all it is the story of Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona: the ways they support each other, the ways they betray each other and the ways they knit back together bonds they have fractured.

    In the vein of Commonwealth, Little Fires Everywhere and The Nest, this is a panoramic, tenderly insightful novel about one devoted, imperfect family. The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the responsibilities we bear both gracefully and unwillingly, and the all-important, ever-complex definition of love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 5, 2019
    ISBN9780062898166
    The Last Romantics: A Novel
    Author

    Tara Conklin

    Tara Conklin was born on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands and raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Last Romantics and The House Girl.  

    Related to The Last Romantics

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Millions Top Ten: September 2017

      Oct 16, 2017

      This month marks the entrée of two newcomers. The post The Millions Top Ten: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Beetlemania

      Oct 9, 2020

      Beetlemania
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Poetry No. 116

      Mar 19, 2024

      The Art of Poetry No. 116
      32 min read

    • Article

      Past Compensation

      Jul 29, 2019

      Past Compensation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Artist in Residence

      Nov 19, 2019

      Artist in Residence
      18 min read

    • Article

      My Friend Juniper

      Apr 5, 2023

      My Friend Juniper
      24 min read

    • Article

      I So Wish That You Remembered

      Mar 4, 2024

      Toward the end of my mother’s life, when she couldn’t carry on a conversation, I took to singing for her. She lived in a group home for people with dementia in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. I live in Brooklyn, and even before the pandemic, I vi

      6 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      3 min read

    • Article

      My Life (second Draft)

      Feb 28, 2023

      It’s early again, and I can hear the train, many miles away, running along the edge of the bay. Since there is no other ambient noise, it is as clear as if it were just down the hill. Until he was born and got older and began to talk all the time abo

      23 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Posting

      Jun 27, 2023

      The Posting
      35 min read

    • Article

      I Never Called Her Momma

      Sep 13, 2023

      I Never Called Her Momma
      39 min read

    • Article

      I Met Fear on the Hill

      Dec 15, 2018

      It’s the summer of 1966, and Sheila and Peter are a young married couple living in Berkeley. They are very much in love, and also very high—tripping on acid for the first time in their lives, in Tilden Park—walking in a shallow stream full of primord

      32 min read

    • Article

      Songs From Life

      Nov 3, 2021

      More times than I can count, I’ve been asked to write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. Usually I was raising a family or I was on tour, which has never been an ideal situation for long periods of concentration. But the one thing I

      7 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2022

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      Songs From Life

      Nov 3, 2021

      More times than I can count, I’ve been asked to write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. Usually I was raising a family or I was on tour, which has never been an ideal situation for long periods of concentration. But the one thing I

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Last Romantics

    4/5

    432 ratings61 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I wanted to know more as too why she never wanted to see her nephew. Who was this young Luna? Her nephews kid? Did she have the ring? It was a good book but I would have liked more information

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      At first too similar to another title I read recently and then some past and present back and forth and finally a comfortable conclusion.
    • 5/5
      I wanted to put it down at times but I’m glad to have stayed with it. Interesting characters and their life choices.
    • 5/5
      A book full of emotion , leaves you satisfied since the character development is superb.
    • 3/5
      will there be a part 2 to this book? so many questions unanswered.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful to read and listen at the same time. Fabulous writing!
    • 2/5
      First 40% was good. Last 60% of this family saga dragged.

      The best character in the book was Joe and, unfortunately, we didn't really get to know him that well since the book was written in 1st person and we only got to hear what one of his three sisters, Fiona, wanted to tell us.
    • 5/5
      Excellent, multilayered story about love. Beautifully written and audio book narration was fantastic.
    • 4/5
      The Last Romantics was a good book. It did throw me for a bit when it opened with the year being 2079. I enjoyed reading about the relationships between the four siblings starting in childhood and continuing as they were adults. I also liked that it was broken down into different sections and that the years were listed where the events took place. The book was well-paced and I enjoyed reading it.
    • 5/5
      The last paragraphs of the book say it all, listen to the last then go back and start it… it will make you sit up and pay attention.
    • 5/5
      The Last Romantics is a beautiful, poetic story. It opens with an old woman, Fiona Skinner, giving a poetry reading / talk in year 2079. The future seems vaguely apocalyptic but it’s never explored too much. This book is not about the future - it’s about the past. Through Fiona’s talk and memories, the book moves backward in time to her childhood and young adulthood, tracing her life as well as those of her siblings. The Skinner family is a curious bunch, touched by tragedy but also marked with great love. Their story explores the ideas of who we are as people - and if our identity changes when broken away from our family and loved ones. This story changes focal point and setting many times throughout its pages but each transition is done extremely smoothly. Not once did I feel thrown out of the story, and I am very sensitive to that. An advance copy of this book was provided to me, free of charge, by the publisher. All thoughts are my own.
    • 3/5
      Hidden in this novel is a page-turning dysfunctional family tale (and I love these), but the framework and too many subplots makes it a bit ungainly. The novel begins in 2079 where a 102 year old poet, Fiona Skinner, living in a world beset by climate change issues is giving a lecture about her body of work. She begins to tell the story of her family, her father passes suddenly when she is young and her mother, seeped in depression during a period she and her siblings call The Pause, the four Skinner children are left to fend for themselves. The oldest, Renee carries the burden of parenting her siblings, becomes an ambitious and hard driving physician. The second daughter, Caroline, marries the boy next door, devotes her life to her husband and family and in middle age decides to live for herself, divorcing and striking out; Joe, the only boy, is a golden child in his youth but there are episodes that forewarn possible mental health issues. A Wall Street phenom, he succumbs to the lure of drugs and money and his NYC career downfall leads him to move to Miami where the culmination of the story takes place. Finally, Fiona, the youngest recounts her youth and realizes in her maturity that her point of view on events as they happened were both naive and sheltered from hard truths. The plot moved along well but the framework of a young woman asking a question at a lecture, the climate calamitous future and several meandering tendrils of story drive the plot toward the end of the narrative, but not necessarily a toward a satisfying conclusion. I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing's early reviewer program in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
    • 2/5
      Boring ,no message from godless people ,sad ,empty lives a waste of time
    • 4/5
      The Last Romantics: Confession while the world collapses

      Tara Conklin’s novel, book-ended by inferred scenes of the end of the world surprised me by being both vivid and intense. The Last Romantics was paced just right- I did not burn through the pages, while keeping a solid cadence.

      In 2079, poet Fiona Skinner stands before a crowd of fans and critics. She is 102 years old, answering questions about her life long work as an author. From the crowd comes a young woman, asking after the origin of her namesake (Luna) from Fiona’s most famous work ‘The Love Poem’.

      Fiona, amidst power outages and emergency sirens, narrates the history of the Skinners from the death of their father to a wedding ring with no bride.

      Well crafted novel.
    • 3/5
      This slow-moving, character-driven novel had some good elements to it, but it missed the mark for me. Some of the characters are flawed in peculiar ways, with questionable morals, and I just couldn’t warm up to them. The story begins with the death of the father, and death and how people cope with grief will figure in much of the story. Depression, anger, unhappiness, drug abuse, and deceit are all present in the tale, but are somewhat balanced by some good memories of happy times along the way. Readers learn about the characters through some lengthy flashbacks, and the conclusion of the story will wrap up most of the story threads. The main characters were well developed, and the writing was good for a plot that was more about about characters’ reactions than an intricate storyline.
    • 4/5
      The complicated sibling relationships made this one memorable. Covers depression, multi-generations, and drug addiction.
    • 4/5
      Sibling stories are never my favorite, but the author can certainly turn a phrase.
    • 4/5
      This was a beautifully written family saga involving four siblings and there sometimes present, mother. The story actually begins in the future with the youngest sibling Fiona, now 102 years old. She is finally able to tell her story. The four siblings go through ups and downs and yet they remain in each other's life for the most part. It's an intensely moving story of their how fragile they are and yet how intensely strong they can become with the support of each other. I really enjoyed every bit of this book. Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona were all characters one can relate to. I definitely will be adding the author's first book, The House Girl on my to read list!
    • 4/5
      Digital Audio performed by Cassandra Campbell.A family epic following the four Skinner siblings over several decades. It begins with a tragedy – the death of their father, and their mother’s subsequent depression. Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona are basically left to their own devices over a summer, protecting each other and their mother from intrusion as much as they are able. The result of what they always refer to as “the Pause” is that they are fiercely loyal to one another. Two decades later that connection will be tested by another tragedy.I love character-driven novels, getting to know and understand the psychology of the characters as they cause and/or react to events in their lives. In this case the siblings’ early experience makes them guarded and as the point of view shifts from character to character and from one time frame to another, that guardedness makes it easy to understand how outsiders (i.e. those outside the family) would be unaware of the need and/or unwilling to assist. That these four people are damaged by their childhood is without question. The ways they find to cope, or not, is what fascinated me in the novel. I recognized how the roles taken on by siblings in childhood often continue into adulthood; that’s certainly true in m own family, and we didn’t suffer the trauma of losing a parent during our formative years. I was sorry that COVID19 interrupted our book club’s scheduled meeting on this work. I would certainly have enjoyed that discussion.Cassandra Campbell is a talented voice artist and does a marvelous job performing the audio. However, the complexity of the novel’s structure, with changing points of views and timeframes, made it a bit more challenging in this format. If I re-read it, I’ll do so in text format.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book. Loved the relationships of the siblings.
    • 5/5
      Well done. Great story.
    • 4/5
      A good family drama is like a pint of chocolate ice cream...just a spoonful...ok, maybe a small bowl...fine! Just give me the pint and a spoon!I really didn’t mean to stay up way past my bedtime or get up early to keep reading, but once I started The Last Romantics I couldn’t stop. It has all the elements: tragedy for 4 siblings at a young age, parents not involved, one “star” sibling that will be the one who makes it...and then the twists and turns as they change completely in adulthood. Conklin sets it very much in the time period with references to 80s fashion, 90s pop culture, the start of the internet and social media and climate change. I’d recommend if you like Meg Wolitzer or Chloe Benjamin.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting book. In a way the plot is straightforward but the characters are so well done that it makes the plot all the more interesting. I'm not so sure that it needed the chapters that covered the year 2079 but there weren't that many of them so it wasn't that distracting.
    • 4/5
      A family saga that spans a century. A story of sibling relationships, how they grow close due to a family situation, come apart, and finally come together again, albeit not the same. Conklin does an excellent job looking into her characters lives with a keen insight and a generosity towards the flaws each holds within. Fiona, the youngest sister is our narrator, and her experiences as the youngest in a family of four seems authentic and real. Ultimately, this is a novel about love, what we survive, what we forgive and what we pretend not to know to spare another. It is about growing and reacting to the situations we experience. There is happiness, sadness, challenges, all the things of which life and family are made."We believe in love because we want to believe in it. Because really, what else is there?Because when the lights go out and we sit waiting in the dark, what do our fingers seek? What do we reach for?"
    • 5/5
      There are four Skinner siblings in Tara Conklin's The Last Romantics. Renee is the oldest, the responsible one. Caroline, the next oldest, is soft-hearted and traditional. Then Joe, the only boy, the gifted athlete, the apple of everyone's eye. And finally Fiona, the baby. The Skinners are a happy family until they're not: when their father dies in an accident, their mother Noni finds out that they're not as well off as she thought, and the loss of not only her husband but the life she thought she had achieved pitches her into a deep depression. They downsize, and Noni takes to her bed. For a couple years. The Skinner children are more or less left to raise themselves during what they come to call The Pause.The seeds of what will become of them are planted during The Pause. Renee takes her responsibilities to take care of the others seriously, and becomes dedicated to achieving at a level that will keep anyone from guessing what's going on at home, setting her down a path towards becoming a doctor. Caroline falls in with a neighbor family, forming a bond with one of their boys that will deepen into romance and marriage. Joe's talent and good looks ensure that his outward needs are met, even if he struggles to process his trauma. And Fiona learns to observe, a skill that comes in handy as she becomes a writer and poet. Noni does recover, and the family seems more or less intact, but the damage that's been done can't be undone.I was biased towards this one from the start: this kind of following-a-group-of-characters-over-time thing is something I absolutely love in a book. I tend to find that the books that stay with me the most are ones where character is first and foremost, and this book is all about character. The siblings and their relationships feel complicated and real. Though they all had moments of being their worst selves, their behaviors felt rooted in how their experiences, particularly during their childhoods, interacted with their innate personalities. I also appreciated that the book never felt the need to have there be a dramatic confrontation between the children and their mother...it generally leaned away from melodrama rather than leaning into it, and I think there are plenty of families that do just try their best to forget the bad moments and move on.As much as I loved this book for the most part, there were some plot elements that kept me from considering it truly great. First was the idea that The Pause could go on for multiple years without anyone really noticing. As much as Renee was able to serve in loco parentis to her younger siblings, there are things like doctor's visits and parent-teacher conferences and signing up for extracurriculars that seem like they could have been patched over for a while but not for as long as Conklin asked us to believe. And then there was the framing device, which featured a very elderly Fiona (in a world where global climate change has changed things for the worse) interacting with a young woman who might have a connection to the Skinners. This did strike me as a little too convenient and neat. On the whole, though, this is a lovely book about the bonds between siblings and would be perfect for a reader who loves well-realized characters. I very much enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
    • 4/5
      The thing about The Last Romantics that hooked me from the beginning was the name Luna. The mysterious Luna had something to do with Fiona's brother's "incident" and I couldn't stop turning pages to find out how. But this isn't a mystery or even a suspense novel; it's a family history, starting from Fiona's childhood, through the Pause when her mother's depression left Fiona and her siblings to fend for themselves and develop bonds between them that would prove tenuous in later years, to the distant future when an elderly Fiona is recounting the whole story through her poetry. I enjoyed reading this book through it's meandering beginnings to its sweeping ending.
    • 4/5
      3.4 Stars, rounded to 4.This book tells the story of four siblings and the closeness they develop as children while their mother is mostly unavailable to them, for about three years. After the death of her husband, Noni Skinner sinks into a deep depression, a period her children later deem “the pause”. The Skinner children learn to depend only on each other. Fiona, the youngest, is the one who’s POV is given most often as she narrates this story, although the lives of each of the four are explored in some depth. Despite their closeness and interdependence, there are cracks that develop in the relationships of all the four siblings in their early adulthood.While I loved the earlier book I read by this author, House Girl, I can only say I mostly enjoyed this book, largely due to the author’s writing style and skills. I did not feel deeply engaged with any of the characters here, or to the story.At the opening of this book, which is set in 2079, when Fiona is 102 years ago and telling the story of her family, it sounded as if it might be a dystopian type story, due to several vague references to what is happening in that 2079 world. But those were never explored any further as the story unfolded, just left hanging.My thanks to Library Thing, the author, and the William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishing Company for the ARC of this book which I was provided.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a family, primarily of the four siblings from when they are very young right through to the end of their lives. This is a very softly spoken story and moves at a relaxed pace. No page turning action here, but what you get instead is highly developed characters with complex relationships. You really bond with these siblings, worrying about them in times of trouble and rejoicing with them in times of joy. You become part of the family. I found it to be a really comforting reading experience with themes of the nurturing individual personalities within a family and accepting that life is an ever changing experience that is rarely all good or all bad. The end is fully wrapped up - not necessarily with a bow but very complete and satisfying anyway.
    • 3/5
      The character development in this book was fantastic! I felt like I knew all of the siblings. After I received this book it started to have so much buzz and such high ratings! I think this book would be an ideal Book Club book because there is so much to discuss. The siblings make life choices, good and bad, as well as the family dynamic, childhood expectations, etc.
    • 5/5
      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.