What My Last Man Did

Short stories about the history of an American family: “As memorable and winning a pair of sisters as I have come across in contemporary literature.” —Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek

How are our lives shaped by the difficult choices of our parents and even grandparents? How will our own choices direct the future for our children?

Following generations of one family across nearly a century, each of Andrea Lewis’s intertwined short stories evokes an intense sense of place and time, from New Orleans in 1895 to Grand Isle, Louisiana, during the hurricane of 1901 and on to London during the Olympic Games of 1948. The people in these ten vivid, engaging tales face tragedy and real-world catastrophic events—war, hurricanes, the Great Depression, racial tension—in their pursuit of love, family, and belonging. Each character struggles to discover and preserve his or her identity and dreams while grappling with the expectations of family and culture and trying to cope with loss. Some succeed, some compromise, and some fail—but all have a traceable impact on a story to come.