Jessica Shattuck, author of Last House, in conversation with Tova Mirvis
When:
Thursday, Jun 19, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Thursday, Jun 19, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Where:
Porter Square Books
1815 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Lectures & Conferences
Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/jessica-shattuck-author-last-house-conversation-tova-mirvis
Porter Square Books is excited to welcome Jessica Shattuck to celebrate the paperback release of Last House! This event will take place on Thursday, June 19 at 7pm at Porter Square Books (1815 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140).
Our Cambridge store offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. See parking details below.
To RSVP for this event while we migrate our website to a new platform, please use this link.
*Please note that you will not receive a confirmation email. However, we will send a reminder email one day before the event. Please check your spam folder if you do not see the pre-event email reminder. Better yet, add [email protected] to your safe sender list to avoid PSB event emails going to spam!
ABOUT LAST HOUSE
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle comes a sweeping story of a nation on the rise, and one family’s deeply complicated relationship to the resource that built their fortune and fueled their greatest tragedy, perfect for fans of The Dutch House and Great Circle.
It’s 1953, and for Nick Taylor, WWII veteran turned company lawyer, oil is the key to the future. He takes the train into the city for work and returns to the peaceful streets of the suburbs and to his wife, Bet, former codebreaker now housewife, and their two children, Katherine and Harry. Nick comes from humble origins but thanks to his work for American Oil, he can provide every comfort for his family, including Last House, a secluded country escape. Deep in the Vermont mountains, the Taylors are free from the stresses of modern life. Bet doesn’t have to worry about the Russian H-bombs that haunt her dreams, and the children roam free in the woods. Last House is a place that could survive the end of the world.
It’s 1968, and America is on the brink of change. Protestors fill the streets to challenge everything from the Vietnam War to racism in the wake of MLK’s shooting—to the country's reliance on Big Oil. As Katherine makes her first forays into adult life, she’s caught up in the current of the time and struggles to reconcile her ideals with the stable and privileged childhood her Greatest Generation parents worked so hard to provide. But when the Movement shifts in a more radical direction, each member of the Taylor family will be forced to reckon with the consequences of the choices they’ve made for the causes they believed in.
Spanning multiple generations and nearly eighty years, Last House tells the story of one American family during an age of grand ideals and even greater downfalls. Set against the backdrop of our nation’s history, this is an emotional tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance and what we owe each other—and captures to stunning effect the gravity of time, the double edge of progress, and the hubris of empire.
PRAISE FOR LAST HOUSE
"Last House is an ambitious historical epic that doubles as an intimate family saga. Jessica Shattuck captures and connects it all—the imperial ambitions of the postwar generation, the rebellion of their offspring in the Sixties, the fallout that we’re still sifting through today. Shattuck writes incisively about marriage, siblings, social activism, and the self-deceptions that allow us to preserve our belief in our own innocence despite all the evidence to the contrary. This is a wide-ranging novel to savor.” — Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Tracy Flick Can't Win
"Ambitious in its historical sweep yet intimate in its portrayal of a family's trials, Jessica Shattuck's moving new novel brings to life the '50s and '60s in America in such a way that we feel powerfully their contemporary relevance. Last House is utterly compelling."
— Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Girl
"Riveting, powerful, and beautifully written, Last House combines the epic scope of an intergenerational geopolitical saga with the suspense of a moving family drama. Jessica Shattuck’s sharp insights about the seductive delights and dangers of progress, idealism, and loyalty will stay with me for a long time." — Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Shattuck is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels Last House (William Morrow, May 2024), The Women in the Castle (William Morrow 2017), a New York Times Bestseller, #1 Indie Next Pick, and winner of The New England Book Award; Perfect Life (W.W.Norton 2009) and The Hazards of Good Breeding (W.W.Norton 2003) which was a New York Times Notable Book, a Boston Globe Editor’s Choice Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for the 2003 PEN/Winship Award.
Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, Glamour, Open City, and The Tampa Review among other publications.
She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children.
Tova Mirvis is the author of the memoir The Book of Separation as well as four novels, We Would Never, Visible City, The Outside World, and The Ladies Auxiliary, which was a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in various newspapers including The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Poets and Writers, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her family. You can connect with her on her website, TovaMirvis.com.
PARKING
Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition offers validated parking in the lot on Roseland St. behind Lesley's University Hall. Roseland Street is accessible by Beacon Street and Mass Ave. When you arrive at the lot, use the screen on the kiosk to get a ticket.
When you're ready to leave, ask for a validation barcode at the cash register. (No purchase necessary.) Parking is free on weekends and weekday evenings from 6PM-7AM. From 7AM-6PM on weekdays the first 45 minutes are free.
Upon exiting the lot, scan your ticket and choose "validation." Then scan the barcode your received from us. If you have an additional charge, you will be prompted to pay after scanning your barcode.
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