The Last Book Party: A Novel

“The Last Book Party is a delight. I found myself nodding along in so many moments and dreading the last page. Karen Dukess has rendered a wonderful world to spend time in.”―Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six

Eve Rosen is invited into a seductive, literary world she thinks will turn her into a writer. But will she have to lose herself to find her own voice?

In the 1980s, famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife Tillie throw Cape Cod’s most unmissable party each summer’s end, a legendary fête for the literary elite. Twenty-five-year-old aspiring writer Eve Rosen finagles her way into this Gatsbyesque orbit, which is completely different from her conventional, Jewish upbringing. But moving into one sphere means leaving another behind, and as Eve tries to negotiate the differences between her family values and this glittering world, she learns the risks of unbridled ambition and the importance of making her own choices about who she wants to be.

Lyrically evoking a bygone era with contemporary resonance, The Last Book Party charts Eve’s soundings as she learns to navigate the deep waters of sex, love, and life over the course of one fateful summer. Poignant, unerringly wise, and delightfully funny, Dukess’s debut tells the universal coming-of-age story of finding our way and our voice, one misstep and one false note at a time.