The Last War: A Novel - Hardcover

Menendez, Ana

3.2

133 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061724769 ISBN 13: 9780061724763

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2009

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Harboring disillusionment in her marriage to a war-correspondent husband only to receive a mysterious message alleging his infidelities, photographer Flash finds herself pursued by an exotic former colleague with whom she shares a dangerous past and long-buried secrets. 35,000 first printing.

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Review:

"[The Last War] speaks to Ana Menndez's maturity--as a woman and a writer. . . . A character study of those who have found their purpose in bearing witness to bloodshed." -- New York Times Book Review

"Menndez's descriptions of the city are haunting and shadowy. . . . A precise and subtle book, full of finely realized flashbacks, the narrator's memories of a marriage and detailed descriptions of Istanbul and of the experience of adjusting to another home, another culture." -- Miami Herald

"Ana Menendez's The Last War offers us a moving and probing portrait of lovers and media warriors in this poignant and touching novel of crumbling friendships and marriages--betrayals, large and small--in a dicey and dangerous world."--Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Brother, I'm Dying

"Menendez taps into [a] wellspring of broken promises and unfulfilled desires and gives us a . . . peek at . . . the Cuban-American experience."--Miami Herald on In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd

"Menendez is a skilled novelist - even admirers of her acclaimed short story collection, In Cuba I was a German Shepherd or her earlier novel, Loving Che, will be impressed with the deepening maturity of her writing. . . . [A] fully convincing psychological portrait."--South Florida Sun Sentinel

"Menendez shows with unblinking honesty in her self-assured second novel The Last War how in conflict and its aftermath journalists can find or lose themselves. . . . Mendendez's deep wisdom about people and their relationships is the payoff that always makes this insightful author worth reading."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"[The Last War] speaks to Ana Men?ndez's maturity--as a woman and a writer. . . . A character study of those who have found their purpose in bearing witness to bloodshed."--New York Times Book Review

"Men?ndez's descriptions of the city are haunting and shadowy. . . . A precise and subtle book, full of finely realized flashbacks, the narrator's memories of a marriage and detailed descriptions of Istanbul and of the experience of adjusting to another home, another culture."--Miami Herald

"[Loving Che] puts [Menendez] in the company of other Latino writers such as Junot Diaz and Sandra Cisneros."--Vanity Fair on Loving Che

Praise for IN CUBA I WAS A GERMAN SHEPHERD: "Powerful... A bright debut that points to even brighter accomplishments to come."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

From the Back Cover:

A breathtaking novel of love, war, and betrayal

Flash, a photojournalist, chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq, awaiting her arrival. Yet instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering.

Losing herself in a fog of memory and recrimination, Flash ponders her life with the ambitious and handsome husband she calls "Wonderboy." Her malaise is compounded by the arrival of a mysterious letter informing her that Brando has been unfaithful to her in Baghdad. Devastated and unwilling to confront him over the phone, Flash spirals deeper into regret, anger, and indecision. Were she and Brando ever happy?

Wandering the strange, shimmering streets of Istanbul, Flash is followed by a woman in a black abaya—Alexandra, a fierce and captivating colleague who shared dangerous days with the couple in Afghanistan. Their meeting rekindles long-buried secrets and forces Flash to face hard truths about her marriage, her husband, and herself. The Last War is a haunting and intense novel that reveals the personal costs of combat journalism while probing crucial questions of cruelty and violence, love and identity.

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