“Last House” is a family saga and epic story that covers fifty plus years of American History. It follows the Taylor family, whose wealth and challenges are tied to the oil industry in the U.S. and in the Middle East. It addresses the impact of the choices we make; those impacts that we know about and those that are hidden until a later time. Last House is a place the family can go to escape everyday struggles and the world situation. The story unfolds through the perspective of different family members and shows how their beliefs and values influence one another and how this results in family challenges and disasters. The book deals with many interesting issues including race, women’s roles, the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, the Weather Underground and the U.S – Iranian relationship. It was an interesting, well-written story that will remain with you for a while. Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for an ARC

The Last House is a multi-generational story of post-war middle class privilege and activism. Parents Bet and Nicholas exit the duty and uncertainty of WWII service to a life of suburban affluence. That life is built on oil company profits, and by extension, American political interference in Iran. Their children grow up among '60s radicals, including the Weather Underground, which brings them into violent conflict with their parents' choices. In the end, everyone is (mostly) forced to evaluate how their own actions have done harm or steered events off course.
The sections focused on Bet and Nick are the strongest; they highlight some of the more compelling complexities of their generation. Katherine's section, told in the first person, seems somehow less nuanced; she has very little compassion for her younger radical self and a fair amount of dismissiveness for the period generally. The epilogue ties everything up in a neat bow; possibly a little too neatly, but it gives some satisfying closure. A more thematically consistent ending, though, might have left readers a little more on edge, given the state of the world these days.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!

I first fell in love with Jessica Shattuck’s writing in The Women in the Castle. I think she’s upped her game with this sweeping family drama, The Last House. The line-by-line writing is spectacular. I highlighted so many perfect sentences and passages.
Themes of family dynamics, American history, war, racism, economic progress, environmental issues, and maturing as an individual weave together a complicated story that sweeps from the aftereffects of WWII to the unease of the 1960s to a future full of equal amounts of fear and hope.

The focus is on the Taylor family. The father, Nick, is a WWII veteran who becomes a lawyer for an oil company. His wife, Bet, served as a codebreaker during the war, but now she’s a full-time housewife and stay-at-home mother of their two children, Katherine and Harry. Katherine is a stubborn child who they don’t quite have a handle on and Harry is a loveable, gentle boy who is easier to parent.

The reader gets to see the Taylor’s world through three points of view—Nick’s, Bet’s, and Katherine’s. I loved the fact each character was layered and complicated, a balance of positive and negative attributes. I found myself equally invested in each character’s story and emotional arc. I also enjoyed experiencing the variety of settings—from a small town in Connecticut to a vacation home in Vermont, to the desert of Iran.

The title comes from the name of a vacation home the Taylors purchase after Nick begins to experience monetary success at work. The “Last” House earns its name in a couple of ways and serves as the perfect backdrop for several generations who fear what their future might hold—if, indeed, there is a future.

Many thanks to William Morrow Publishing and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I loved this and don't think I am quite capable of putting into words how much this book moved me. Brava, Jessica Shattuck! The writing style and the author's way of moving through the Taylor family, their history, and their points of view enlightened many points of American history. I highly recommend this book and will recommend it to my book club in May! Thank you to William Morrow Publishing and NetGalley for this eARC!

I really enjoyed The Women in The Castle by Jessica Shattuck so when I read the description of her newest book, I was anxious to read it. Last House is a sweeping family saga about Nick and Bet Taylor and their family that expands over almost eighty years.

Nick and Bet meet right before he is sent to war and marry when he returns. Bet wants to get an PhD but gives up her ambition to raise their two children, Katherine and Harry. Nick is an attorney working for Standard Oil in 1953 and now wealthy. He travels to Iran frequently for work so the couple buy a house in rural Vermont called Last House where they retreat with their children to escape the pressures of life and spend summers together. Family is everything to Nick but as the children grow older they begin to question their father’s work. Katherine takes a job as a writer for a radical newspaper and begins to join protests and the rebelliousness of1968. Harry is a gentle soul who loves nature and his family but soon he is caught up in the rebelliousness of the time, too, with tragic results.

This is a well written family saga with well defined characters and a strong sense of time and place. Last House will be published on May 14, 2024. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Last House is first set in 1953, where we meet Nick Taylor, a WWII veteran and his wife Bet and two young children. We follow the four all the way to 2026 and live through love and heartbreak, sickness and choices that all new adults need to make - how they decide to define themselves in the world.

Last House covers MLK, the WeatherUnderground, the Iranian Crisis and Ayatollah. I love the sprawling nature of this book and how it easily reminds us that choices made by American are so much based on the contemporary events and how they have been framed. Because Nick had a job in oil, the family is able to buy property and pull themselves up economically. Shattuck includes the character's thoughts on ownership, society and race. it's truly mesmerizing! A tour de force, a generational saga, I wish I could read more about the Taylors and the friends and family around them!
williammorrow #jessicashattuck #lasthouse

Reading the description of this book made me want to read it.
A big thanks to #NetGalley for this opportunity.
Usually historical fiction is my favorite, but I hard a hard time getting into this story. I was unable to feel like I was inside the pages.
Maybe it is because of the span of eighty years, or the complexity of their lives intertwined around the oil industry.
At the end, I give this book 3.5 stars.

This sweeping family history hooked me from the first pages. A study of a family’s origins, rise, fall, and future redemption. A beautiful novel to sit with for a while.

An interesting read. One level a multigenerational saga of the Taylor family stretching from the early 1950s to the mid 90s. Through them it is also historical fiction of that period, spanning the early years of America’s involvement in Iran and the roll of BIG OIL through the years of civil unrest of the 60s with the Viet Nam protests, the radical bombings and protests,and then the current environmental crisis and move to renewable energy.
The last chapters of the book felt a little rushed “ tieing” everything up , but exactly how I like my reads. I enjoyed it, particularly so because I lived through those years.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins Publishing for an early copy of Last House by Jessica Shattuck

Following World War II, global attention turned to the Middle East and its ability to provide crude oil for a world with an insatiable need for the "black gold". Last House focuses on Iran and its leadership through greed and mismanagement, the reaction in the United States when American companies ignored health and safety to acquire oil and the fear of Communism that swept through the times.

Nick Taylor, Wisconsin -born and raised, returns from World War II, marries his sweetheart Bet (Elizabeth) and works as a lawyer for an American company negotiating for oil in Iran. Author Jessica Shattuck includes 1951 Time Man of the Year Iranian leader Mohammad Mossadegh, and I was compelled to look up the magazine. I read a very worthwhile critique of the Time Magazine article about Mossadegh. Good historical fiction leads the reader to the possibility of learning more.

The Taylor family also becomes close to a group of American experts on Iran who decide to build second homes on the inherited property of Carter Weston, a well-educated government liaison, in Vermont. The group views this as a type of survival land should the United States and Russia start a nuclear war. The Taylor family calls their dwelling Last House.

The novel also follows the Taylor's daughter, Katherine, as she works for a leftist newspaper that calls for action against big-business companies that put poor countries at great risk. When tragedy strikes the Taylor family, they will unable to separate themselves from the path America is on to deplete the Middle East of its most valuable natural resource.

Jessica Shattuck offers many opportunities for rethinking policies which do so much harm to a fragile world.

Nick and Bet barely had a chance to get to know each other before he left for World War II but like so many, they got engaged while he was overseas fighting for his country. Upon his return, they pursued the American dream in the suburbs and created the ideal family amidst the Cold War. However, underneath the image of having it all portrayed to the public is a quiet yearning for more. Bet’s dreams of a PhD are replaced by motherhood and “publishing” The Modern Mapleton Household. When the opportunity to buy Last House in Vermont to escape during the summer, a new hope is awakened for their family. As the decades continue and the next generation ages, the same beautiful yet daunting themes transcend through time. Last House is a tragically beautiful novel, a rare gem that encapsulates a family’s experience across generations juxtaposed with constant pursuit of the allusive American dream amidst war, civil turmoil, and family grief.

From the start, it’s engaging. It follows the Taylor family, who become wealthy thanks to the oil industry. They have a special retreat, called Last House, where they can escape the world's troubles. But as the years go by, the family faces challenges and changes that make them question their beliefs and values. A wonderful read, about family, change and acceptance.

Hard to get into, just not for me. I think I’m a minority though since it’s gotten mostly higher reviews.

Last House is a very interesting and thought provoking saga. It depicts a family with opposing values and yet held together by love. The father Nick, a lawyer who deals with oil deals in Iran and his daughter who is an activist who opposes everything he stands for. The book encompasses much of the current events from 1953 to 2026 and the development and changes the family goes through. Last House represents a sense of peace and survival.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the book "Last House" by Jessica Shattuck, we follow the Taylor family through the 1950s and 1960s, a time of big changes in America and the world. Nick, a lawyer working for an oil company, buys a house in Vermont called Last House. But their ties to the oil industry bring both good and bad for the family. The story focuses on Nick, his wife Bet, and their children, Katherine and Harry. Each chapter gives us a different perspective on their lives and struggles.

While the book does a great job of telling a captivating family story, it sometimes gets a bit too focused on big ideas. Characters talk about their lives in a way that feels forced, and parts of the book set in the future feel out of place. Overall, though, "Last House" is a compelling read that draws you into the Taylor family's world and keeps you hooked until the end.

4.00/5 stars! Comes out May 14, 2024!!

Pefect read for someone that likes a family saga, which I typically enjoy, but this one was just too much for me. I couldn't get into the story.
The words just didn't flow well for me. Thank you for an advance read!

In the postwar 1950s veteran Nick Taylor’s focus is on family. That is what keeps him grounded. His wife, Bet, who misses her war work as a cryptologist is now a homemaker and mother of two. The world is an uncertain and frightening place, Nick is often off to Iran doing oil deals. When an opportunity to purchase a rustic home in remote Vermont they jump on it.. In the 50s and 60s this becomes a retreat and sanctuary for them and their children, Katherine and Harry. But time moves on, politics and society changes. Big oil and and the clandestine negations he was part of take on a different tone. Katherine becomes a radical and her brother, Harry gets pulled in with tragic results. Through all the decades the nous remains as a sanctuary.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eGalley of this title.

As the world begins the transition away from oil toward renewable energy, Jessica Shattuck reflects on the greed, hubris, and optimism of the Age of Oil in Last House, a historical fiction novel that follows an American family whose fate becomes inextricably intertwined with the oil industry. Upon his return from World War II, veteran Nick Taylor prioritizes material and domestic stability. He finances a house in the suburbs for his wife, Bet, and their children, Katherine and Harry, with his job as a lawyer for an American oil. As part of his work, he plays a small but not insignificant role in the CIA-backed coup in Iran that places the Western-friendly Shah in power. Nick buys a house in rural Vermont called Last House as a summer retreat alongside several other American power brokers in Iran. Last House alternates between the perspectives of Nick, Bet, and Katherine as their family’s connections with the oil industry prove to be their greatest blessing and their greatest source of sorrow throughout the 1950s and tumultuous 1960s.

Although it positions itself as a meditation on themes of ambition and hubris, at its heart Last House is an engrossing historical family saga. Shattuck paints Nick, Bet, Katherine, and Harry as complex and vibrant characters who struggle to navigate the challenges of their time. She demonstrates a strong sensitivity to the rifts and bonds that develop between the characters throughout the story. The chapters from Katherine’s perspective are particularly compelling. She captures Katherine’s voice so vividly and completely that it’s easy to forget that we are not, in fact, reading the words of an aging Baby Boomer reflecting on her life. Part of what makes Katherine’s chapters so remarkable is that Shattuck recaptures the unique socio-political atmosphere of late-1960s America in a way that feels authentic and textured. These elements combine to make an utterly riveting story that chronicles how the Taylor family’s connection to oil inches them closer and closer to tragedy.

Last House succeeds brilliantly as a family story, but Shattuck stumbles when she attempts to bring broader thematic commentary into the narrative. At times, her characters philosophize about their lives in a pointed and inorganic matter; at others, Shattuck simply asks the novel’s thematic questions outright rather than let her readers come to them on their own. Additionally, the chapters at the end of the book, which take place in 2026, feel shoehorned in to connect the story to present-day political and climate concerns. Not every literary fiction book needs to explicitly meditate on the current state of the world to be considered worthy; sometimes, it’s enough to just tell an emotionally impactful and engaging story, which Last House undoubtedly accomplishes.

TL;DR: Last House is an engrossing family historical drama with complex and vibrant characters, a riveting plot, and an evocative setting. Much like some of its characters, however, it fails to realize some of its more grandiose ambitions.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advanced reader copy of Last House by Jessica Shattuck in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very well written, very dark and surprisingly apocalyptic novel. We are taken through the post WW II years with an American family whose lives are inextricably tied to the oil industry and CIA involvement in tge burgeoning oil industry.

Nick Taylor becomes a central figure in this era, yet with no connection to the politics and future damages that this kingdom of oil and plastic will provoke. This turbulence of these years becomes a whirlpool surrounding his own children. Told through the eyes of the Taylor family that lived and died because of the petrochemical industry and the connected politics.

It is THE LAST HOUSE, a family retreat in rural Vermont, that is central to the lives of the family.

This is an unusual study of this era. The author has managed to include the real historical events of the era to be the framework for this story.

Thank you Netgalley for this extremely prescient novel.

"Last House" by Jessica Shattuck is a haunting and atmospheric novel that explores the lingering scars of war and the secrets that lie buried within a family's past. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the novel follows the lives of the Muellers, a German-American family grappling with their complicity in the horrors of the Nazi regime. As they navigate the shifting alliances and loyalties of postwar Germany, they must confront the ghosts of their past and reckon with the choices that have shaped their lives.

Shattuck's writing is elegant and evocative, capturing the devastation of war and the fragile bonds of love and loyalty that endure in its wake. The characters are vividly drawn, their struggles and triumphs resonating with emotional depth and complexity. The novel explores themes of guilt, redemption, and the search for meaning in the aftermath of trauma, offering a poignant meditation on the power of forgiveness and reconciliation.

"Last House" is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that sheds light on a dark chapter of history while offering a message of hope and healing. Jessica Shattuck has crafted a haunting and unforgettable story that will linger in the minds of readers long after they've turned the final page.