The Last One

Praise

Winner of the Prix Les Inrockuptibles 2020

“Fatima Daas was used to not reading about people like her. Her debut novel was a chance to remedy this…Critics praised the novel’s powerful lyricism, and hailed the author for breaking taboos around gender, sexuality, and religion…[a] playful exploration of multiple identities.” —New York Times
 
“Daas was hailed as the voice of a new generation for her first novel…[a] poetic, straight-talking, and often comic account…the story races along with the pace of a song or a poem…beautifully drawn.” —The Guardian
 
“A literary hit…follows a young, lesbian Algerian woman as she wrestles with the friction of her conflicting identities.” —New York Times Book Review
 
“Daas’s impressive debut novel has the urgency of well-made cinéma verité…hypnotic.” —Times Literary Supplement

“A riveting novel you won’t regret picking up.” —Bustle, Must-Read Books
 
“In this award-winning autofiction…[Daas] sorts out her identity as French, Muslim, Algerian, and lesbian in absorbing, rapid-fire prose.” —Library Journal, Top Winter Debuts
 
“Mesmerizing…a fresh addition to queer fiction—a deep and original debut novel.” —Foreword Reviews (starred review)
 
“A frank and fervent work of autofiction about a woman’s attempts at integrating her clashing religion and sexuality…provocative.” —Publishers Weekly

“The Last One is a thoughtful examination of a character who deeply wants to be known despite lacking the tools to do any of that self-excavation. The work is tender and sweet, lyrically built, and reprises itself in fascinating ways. Who are we apart from our family? Can we face ourselves? Can we love? Fatima Daas asks these questions the way many of us do: plaintively, longingly, and with a tremendous amount of heart.” —Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things and With Teeth

“Fatima Daas’ debut novel signals the presence of an exciting voice that commands attention and insists on complexity. Whether she is unpacking family ties or tracing the ways queerness dovetails with other identities, Daas stops you in your tracks with what seems like a quiet symphony until you realize it is in fact a crescendo of what it means to be human.” —Mona Eltahawy, author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls

“Daas explores multifaceted identity through achronological slices of life, arrayed like glittering shards of a fractured mirror. An extraordinary debut novel you’ll never forget.” —Forsyth Harmon, author of Justine

“In The Last One, Fatima Daas uses words like bold and vivid brush strokes, exploring identity through lyricism. I tore through this incredible work of art in one sitting, but I often took a moment to catch my breath and admire the defiant beauty at the heart of this book.” —Abdi Nazemian, author of Stonewall Honor Book Like a Love Story

“Whether dealing with chronic illness, sexuality, therapy, education, faith, friendship, family, romance, or riding the bus, Fatima Daas’ The Last One takes on the world with honesty, humor, and lyricism. The specificity of life in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois underscores universal themes and utterly recognizable emotions. Daas bares her narrator’s soul, and we can’t look away.” —Eman Quotah, author of Bride of the Sea

“Fatima Daas’s monologue is constructed by fragments, as though she were updating Barthes and Mauriac for Clichy-sous-Bois. She carves out a portrait, like a patient, attentive sculptor…or like a mine searcher, aware that each word could make everything explode, and you have to choose them with infinite care.” —Virginie Despentes

“A rhythm that pulses, sentences that crack, chapters like a chant…[a] self-portrait of a girl truly of our time…The furiously contemporary voice that we were hoping for.” —Les Inrockuptibles

“The Last One is a bombshell that examines the question of identity with subtlety and passion.” —Elle (France)