My Last Innocent Year
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.8
(165)
Daisy Alpert Florin
An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos—and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor.It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place—until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling.Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought.A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from.
Coming Of Age
AD
Buy now:
More Details:
Author
Daisy Alpert Florin
Pages
304
Publisher
Henry Holt and Company
Published Date
2023-02-14
ISBN
1250857031 9781250857033
Community ReviewsSee all
"This was ok, but missing something. Not clear"
Arleisha Strauder
"I got to page 70 and couldnt bring myself to flip another page. The writing itself is okay not terribly written. I lacked any interest in the story itself and its characters. Also the main character irritated me. And I understand shes a victim but still."
Ann D
"This is in my top five favorite books of 2024. It’s INCREDIBLY well written, dramatic, but not overdone. The evolution of our MC hots close to home, and I loved every moment of this story. "
Emily Calleja
"Really authentic. I could relate"
J G
Janice Garrett
"*3.5"
Panda44
"This is "historical" coming of age novel the dissects the almost invisible lines between consensual and non-consensual sex and between being an adult and being a child. Isabel Rosen is in her final year of college in New Hampshire and has been accepted into a much sought after spot in a writing seminar with the head of the English department in the spring semester. Before leaving on break she has an unwanted sexual encounter with someone she thought was a friend. When Isabel returns the following semester she is confronted with the fallout from the previous semester as well as the breakdown of her final semester. The teacher of the writing seminar is taking a break due to personal reasons and her thesis advisor is the other half of the personal issues. In walks a handsome writer to fill in all the broken pieces of her final months in college. He not only guides her in her writing but he guides her in what he considers the way adults should behave and act. Their relationship turns steamy and threatens to upend all of the plans she has for her life. While lost in her love affair she contemplates her past and her relationship with her parents. She thinks about her connections to the people she goes to school with, especially the ones she calls friends. She watches the so-called adults and notices how they don't seem to have any more figured out about life than she does. When faced with making the choice between what is right and what feels right her innocence's is shattered. She can no longer run around playing make believe and let life pass her by she is forced to deal with the real world and her future. In my opinion this book perfectly captures inside the mind of a girl in her early 20's: The overanalyzing of things that have happened just recently or far in the past, the restructuring of the relationship with your parents and the overwhelming presence of the future and the unshakable feeling that one wrong move (or a move already made) may mess it up. This book will make you feel nostalgia for your early twenties while also reminding you of how far you have come since.<br/><br/>Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. for an ARC of this book. It is due to be released on Valentines day 2/14/2023"
Nicole Falche
"I loved this. Devoured it. It felt like a lot of the books I've read about student/teacher affairs and campus politics and confusing sexual encounters, but it was just done so well, it felt refreshing. Need more of this author!!"
kelsey
