The Last One Home: A Novel - Hardcover

Appollo, Annette

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060192089 ISBN 13: 9780060192082

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1999

Synopsis

Years after graduating from high school in her small Pennsylvania coal-mining town, Gia returns to home to care for her dying uncle, sparking a reunion with three other friends that forces all of them to come to terms with old conflicts and feelings

About this title

Review:

When Gia Scarpino left home for college, she and her three best friends, Barbara Arminavage, Yozo Walenticonis, and Willie Cunningham, promised to remain close. In high school, the four had been inseparable; Barbara, an optimistic dreamer, Yozo, the class underachiever, and Willie, Gia's first love. But Gia never returned, and their friendships withered. Now, 35 years later, Gia comes home to see her terminally ill Uncle Tony--and for the chance to reunite with old friends.

Though Gia is no longer the girl she once was, she is surprised by the changes in her friends. Yozo has formed an intimate friendship with Uncle Tony and is a wealthy and respected entrepreneur. Barbara has destroyed herself and her family with alcohol; while Willie, who had spent years holding on to hope for Gia's return, has become a priest. As the euphoria of their reunion wears off, the friends face the grim reality of their personal failures and the dangerous consequences of the dormant passions that linger between them.

Dust off your catechism, dig up your pasta machine, and prepare to be completely enveloped in the Italian Catholic culture of Annette Appollo's The Last One Home. Appollo's carefully developed characters and authentic touches bring this world to life, where quirky details and surreal moments prevent the danger of suffocation by nostalgia--and some predictable and not-so-predictable twists capture the reader's attention and heart. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

About the Author:

Annette Appollo was a successful attorney before leaving law to pursue a rich personal life. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0060192089
• ISBN 13: 9780060192082
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 277