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The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess 
Published by Henry Holt, Henry Holt and Co. on July 9, 2019
In the summer of 1987, 25-year-old Eve Rosen is an aspiring writer languishing in a low-level assistant job, unable to shake the shadow of growing up with her brilliant brother. With her professional ambitions floundering, Eve jumps at the chance to attend an early summer gathering at the Cape Cod home of famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife, Tillie.
Dazzled by the guests and her burgeoning crush on the hosts’ artistic son, Eve lands a new job as Henry Grey’s research assistant and an invitation to Henry and Tillie’s exclusive and famed "Book Party"― where attendees dress as literary characters. But by the night of the party, Eve discovers uncomfortable truths about her summer entanglements and understands that the literary world she so desperately wanted to be a part of is not at all what it seems.
A page-turning, coming-of-age story, written with a lyrical sense of place and a profound appreciation for the sustaining power of books, Karen Dukess's The Last Book Party shows what happens when youth and experience collide and what it takes to find your own voice.
This is a beautiful story set in the 1980s about the publishing industry and Eve Rosen’s part in it. She is an aspiring author who hasn’t given up hope that her dream of becoming an author will come true one day. In the meantime, we follow her as she navigates in the publishing world, and it is a fun read.
I love the way the author Karen Dukess wrote this book. I could visualize the characters, the behind the scenes look at the publishing world was very realistic, and the descriptions of various activities like the party hop were spot on. This book felt so realistic that I can see it being made into a movie. I highly recommend it!
I look forward to reading more books from this author in the future.
Reviewed by: Linda C.
About Karen Dukess
Karen Dukess has a work history as eclectic as her taste in books. She has been a tour guide in the former Soviet Union, a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia and, for nearly a decade, a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations Development Programme. She has blogged on parenting for The Huffington Post and written book reviews for USA Today. She lives outside New York City with her family.
