This is a wonderful book and it is amazing that it is a first novel. It has a decidedly unusual structure and subject but is flawlessly pulled off. The scenes from London and Skye recreate a very English (in no other country could this occur) claustrophobic mother/daughter relationship. You get lost in this book and find yourself looking up after 10 pages or so realizing, with a jolt, that the characters aren't real and you are just reading a book. I give it 4.9 because the ending is a tiny bit weak, but don't let that put you off this book -- a fine work and a most enjoyable read.

Claire Messud tackles issues with delicacy and perspicacity. Each of the main characters of this book is suffering from exile- geographical and emotional- and is looking for a home that perhaps never was. She does not elicit our sympathy for Virginia, Emmy or their mother- but you cannot help feeling a deep empathy for these women's loneliness and admiration for their attempts, however fruitless, to overcome it.

This is one of my favorite books. I read it a couple of years ago and I have re-read it many times since. The story Messud weaves, is untouchable in its excellence, both as a great work of literature and as a personal piece about the simplicity of life. A book well worth reading!

Claire Messud's second novel is so far her masterwork: an impressively constructed and written account of a wealthy French Algerian family falling to pieces, and their history of how they got to the point they're at. The breaking of the narrative down into numbered sections is beautifully done, and you find yourself deeply caring for what happens to the narrator, Sagesse (who unfortunately becomes a bit of a pill by the end) and her family members. Her troubled grandfather, snobbish grandmother, exuberant father and (especially) her emotionally wounded mother emerge off the pages as full and breathing characters, and the changes they go through seem extremely natural and believable. The novel is an account of what it means to be an alien in one's own country, and how this particularly becomes inflected by France's traumatic colonial involvement with Algeria. While Messud's prose at times becomes a bit precious, the novel is for the most part masterfully written and quite moving. This is a writer from whom to expect great things in the future.

What gorgeous language! What an incredible writer! The Last Life is one of the best written novels I have ever read. This incredible novel contains various elements of fiction: historical, philosophical, and just the right touch of magical realism.

The story is about a French-Algerian family and the constant moving to different parts of the world -- the South of France, the East Coast of the U.S. and Algeria -- has affected each of their lives. It seems as though each family member has found his or her identity in one of the many places they have been. As a result, they never feel like they have found a home. The thing that struck me most when reading this book was how the author described life in the lost world of French Algeria in the 1950's. The historical part of the novel is incredibly accurate. Let me tell you that I have learned a lot of important parts of history in this book. I also love the fact that the story is told through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Lagesse, seen through the eyes of innocence indeed! The Last Life is -- without a stretch of doubt -- the best historical fiction novel I have ever read. This novel should not be overlooked. Run along and get it!

This is the best novel I have read in 2 or 3 years. It is everything that fiction should be -- beautifully written, engaging, well-plotted and structured. It has several layers of meanings -- historical, family, philosophical and more -- and blends them all skillfully and interestingly. It makes the American grad student/writers' workshop "my parents were mean to me and then my professors were mean to me" trivia look childish and silly by comparison, as they are.

Anyone who says this is an adolescent girl's coming of age story is trivializing it. Ignore them. Read this book if you love literature.

I was particularly impressed with this young author's grasp of the meaning and texture of the lost world of French Algeria in the 1950's and '60's...particularly poignant when read in 1999 from another ruined and abandoned French colony, amid the decaying buildings of Phnom Penh...

I hope the author will write many more books and that her publishers will bring her first novel back into print -- I want to read it. Thank you, Ms. Messud, for writing such a wonderful work.

Not as good as "The Last Life", which is so far Claire Messud's masterpiece. I love her fuid, romantic language that effortlessly transports you to her worlds, and it works well in these two novellas; however, there is an emotional hole in these stories that was not present in her other work. I did not feel a connection to any of the characters as I did in her previous full-length books and I don't know if it's because the stories did not have a middle "arc" or perhaps Messud is at her best when she is allowed to draw her characters out over several chapters. I enjoyed the stories for what they were but they left no lasting impression on me the way Sagesse from "Last Life" did, nor did they offer any new observations on the human psyche that she hasn't already explored. Still, even Messud's disappointments are never fully "disappointing" and I would recommend this book for a satisfying weekend read.

and especially so in Claire Messud's case when "The Last Life" was so deliciously rendered, so unforgettably film like and full of nostalgia without ever being sentimental. In contrast, I found these novellas too tight and with too little room for the reader to daydream on them. But this is highly subjective. I read one professional review that praised the first, damned the second work--there are 2 novellas here. Another reviewer, highly respected saw it just the other way around. But for myself, I missed the last novel and felt these experimental works may lead to a greater next novel, not another novella, which I do not believe is Ms. Messud's best genre.

Wonderful introduction to an author who will surely make her mark in contemporary literature. Messud utilizes the pen to paper as would a painter use their brush to a canvas. In both short novels----or novellas, Messud engages the reader into the full depth of a story in the shortness of 100 pages each. Unlike other reviewers, I was not prejudiced by having read The Last Life first and so disappointed with these stories. (although it sits next to me as I write because I can't wait to see more of her work). In A Simple Plan, we learn the whole life of Maria to who and what she has become today from her plight as a child. The Hunters story immediately strikes the reader without ever revealing the gender of the first person narrative. The most engaging part of both of these stories is that the language makes them come alive, almost dance off the page. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more of her work.