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The Last Time We Spoke Hardcover – Large Print, February 1, 2018
- Print length348 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMagna Large Print Books
- Publication dateFebruary 1, 2018
- ISBN-100750544619
- ISBN-13978-0750544610
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
Product details
- Publisher : Magna Large Print Books (February 1, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 348 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0750544619
- ISBN-13 : 978-0750544610
- Item Weight : 1.74 pounds
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Award-winning author Fiona Sussman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and immigrated to New Zealand over thirty years ago. A former family doctor, she hung up her stethoscope in 2003 to pursue another long-held dream, to write.
Published internationally, she is the author of four novels and numerous critically- acclaimed short stories.
Her novel 'The Last Time We Spoke' won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel 2017 and was shortlisted for the NZ Heritage Prize 2016. An early draft won the Kobo/NZ Society of Authors Publishing Prize.
'Addressed to Greta' launched Bateman Books’ fiction list and went on to win the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction 2021.
'The Doctor's Wife' is her fourth novel and was released in October 2022. It was shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction. It was named one of the Best 100 Books of 2022 by the NZ Listener.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story uplifting and engaging. They describe the book as brilliantly written and interesting. Readers praise the authentic voices of the main characters and the realistic content.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story moving and engaging. They say it's a story of hardships, forgiveness, and redemption. The ending is realistic, with unexpected twists that show hope where hopelessness prevails. Readers appreciate the positive redemption theme and the convincing feelings Carla displays. The voices of the main characters are authentic.
"...Mesmerising, just so gritty and real. I found the story utterly convincing. The voices were what impressed me most...." Read more
"...Carla's feelings are utterly convincing and the voices of the main characters are authentic...." Read more
"Good story well told" Read more
"...It's is a story of hardships, forgiveness and so much more. A magnificent book that is so brilliantly written. My favourite read in a long time...." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate the gritty and realistic storytelling. The concept is interesting, but some feel the book lacks momentum.
"This book kept me awake into the wee small hours. Mesmerising, just so gritty and real. I found the story utterly convincing...." Read more
"...It's is a story of hardships, forgiveness and so much more. A magnificent book that is so brilliantly written. My favourite read in a long time...." Read more
"...surprising the pacing was slow and steady but always moving and always interesting...." Read more
"This is one of my best reads this year and I read a lot! A story of forgiveness after the worst things have been done to a lovely family...." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing style. They find it brilliantly written and tight.
"...A magnificent book that is so brilliantly written. My favourite read in a long time...." Read more
"...Sad but so rewarding and beautifully written! I love this book!" Read more
"Written with keen sensitivity and perception helping one to empathize with each of the characters...." Read more
"Tightly written. Good story line. No punches pulled but positive redemption theme." Read more
Customers find the book authentic. They say the main characters' voices are convincing and the story sounds true to life.
"...I found the story utterly convincing. The voices were what impressed me most...." Read more
"...Carla's feelings are utterly convincing and the voices of the main characters are authentic...." Read more
"...I found it a very spiritually uplifting story and it sounded very true to life." Read more
Customers find the book realistic. They say the characters and setting are well-developed.
"...Mesmerising, just so gritty and real. I found the story utterly convincing. The voices were what impressed me most...." Read more
"This novel is gritty and realistic but is taken above the more usual crime dramas by Fiona Sussman's prose...." Read more
"...The characters of Claire and Ben are well rounded and realistic and the New Zealand setting is a delight...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2016This book kept me awake into the wee small hours. Mesmerising, just so gritty and real. I found the story utterly convincing. The voices were what impressed me most. There was a kind of spirit character like a Maori ancestor who was like a guide for the troubled Maori characters of the land. It added a dimension that reminded me of the whale in Whale Rider. A kind of unearthly wisdom watching over lost souls and offering guidance.
Carla lost everything she valued to Ben, a killer, who seemed irredeemable. Thuggish. Illiterate. Ignorant. But his voice was so authentic! Did this author go and spend time living inside jails, or wandering our most underprivileged streets, to nail the voice like that? I could almost believe it.
Ben had destroyed so much and yet in the end it was his own victim who came to his rescue.
"You're a teacher,' said Carla’s husband as he died at last of the injuries inflicted . . . and that was where the story turned. That was what made everything that happened afterwards so credible.
I loved the jail characters especially Chalkie who was a lifer and was trying to save the young men in his influence. In the end he was co-operating with Carla.
I loved Carla’s relationship with her Chinese neighbour.
Watch out for the scene involving butterflies - it was perfect microcosm. An imprisoned being undergoing metamorphosis. The irredeemable thugs making sure the butterflies found freedom.
I recommend this book to every adult reader. It should win big prizes. This is an important book. Don’t miss it.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2017This novel is gritty and realistic but is taken above the more usual crime dramas by Fiona Sussman's prose. Carla's feelings are utterly convincing and the voices of the main characters are authentic.
The end of the novel is uplifting while remaining realistic.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016One night, Carla Reid's life changes forever at the hands of a young thug, Ben Toroa. She struggles to put her life back together but after the slow death of her husband, she seeks out Ben, in prison. She is looking for something good to come out of the dreadful things she has experienced and it is interesting to watch the path her life takes as she gets to know Ben. The butterfly metaphor (you'll have to read the book) at first perplexed me but its symbol of freedom - and the behaviour of the prisoners towards the butterflies is full of hope and redemption.
The characters of Claire and Ben are well rounded and realistic and the New Zealand setting is a delight. Sussman has captured the dialogue of both male and female characters.
Recommended
- Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017Good story well told
- Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2016After staying up until 3 am - today I am a complete zombie!! Who could fall asleep when reading such a remarkable book? The last time we spoke takes place in rural New Zealand and is the outcome of a brutal meeting between a farming family and an illiterate Maori boy called Ben. It's is a story of hardships, forgiveness and so much more. A magnificent book that is so brilliantly written. My favourite read in a long time. Congratulations Fiona Sussman - I loved this book as much as your first novel - Shifting Colours.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2017I wanted to keep reading to follow every twist and turn there were a number of unexpected events that were surprising the pacing was slow and steady but always moving and always interesting. I found it a very spiritually uplifting story and it sounded very true to life.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2016This is one of my best reads this year and I read a lot! A story of forgiveness after the worst things have been done to a lovely family. Sad but so rewarding and beautifully written! I love this book!
- Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017Unfortunately the writing and the dialogue are quite cliched, and the Maori characters are a bit one dimensional . Great concept for a book but I wish the book came from a perspective of real experience.
Top reviews from other countries
- SpamReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars I thoroughly enjoyed it - well-written
A very compelling book, telling the stories of the perpetrator and the victim of a violent crime, and how their lives continue to be intertwined. It is, in turn, shocking, heartbreaking, and distressing, but ultimately gives the reader tentative hope that active forgiveness might bring about positive change. There is a strong sense of place. The narrative is interspersed with Maori history, and there is underlying social commentary on the plight of younger generations of the Maori people who fall prey to drugs, alcohol and criminal gangs. But apart form these New Zealand cultural references, there is the bleak depiction of life in juvenile detention/prison.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - well-written, well-researched and, though the subject matter is tough, it is a gripping and satisfying book.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Australia on September 4, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Daizee
Another wonderfully written book with compassion, honesty and trust thrown in to add to the astonishing mixture of a sad and humane tale of young souls gone wrong and lives changed as a consequence. I eagerly await your next book!
- JaquiPReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars Such a beautiful writer
I loved Fiona Sussman's book Shifting Colours and recommended it to everyone. As Shifting Colours described Africa so vividly I assumed this book was also going to be set in Africa but it wasn't it was set in New Zealand. Hardship, injustice, life dividers are universal though and I learned a lot about the Maori lot that I hadn't given any thought to before. This is a compelling tale about life chances with compelling characters. Carla was a wonderful character and Ben who turns her life upside down in one tragic night a glowering presence throughout Would have been 5 star but for the fact characters are introduced, gained my interest and then disappeared again I suppose that's life but some of them I would have liked to have learned what their story arc was. But a wonderful moving story. A fantastic book.
- DebraReviewed in Australia on October 10, 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read
An unsettling story that reminded me early on of 'In Cold Blood'. There were very dark moments but uplifting ones as well. I ended up skipping the 'Beyond' chapters as I thought they were a bit odd and didn't really add anything to the story. I also question the purpose of the journalist - it was almost as though he was intended to be a bigger character but it didn't turn out that way... he kind of disappeared. A solid story, but could have been better.
- G.P. LUNNReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing, disquieting and an amazing read.
Disturbing, disquieting and an amazing read. What an incredible skill as an author to so get into the ‘mind’ of the characters.
Best read I have had this year.