THE LAST ROMANTICS

"The greatest works of poetry, what make each of us a poet, are the stories we tell about ourselves ... We tell these stories until we believe them, we believe in ourselves, and that is the most powerful thing of all."

The Last Romantics, a contemplative novel about the intertwining lives of four siblings, is a lovely meditation on how relationships intersect, diverge and then reconnect. In this story, they weave together and apart - sometimes due to life events, but most often in intangible ways that feel more like seismic change, and a lot like real life.

This novel is not about extraordinary people doing heroic things; rather it is a quiet novel about the many different kinds of love, beauty found in small moments, and tiny observations that glitter in our memory for decades past their occurrence.

If you've read The Last Romantics, you may remember "Joe's cake" - a recollection of a decadent cake that called for "a pound of butter, heaps of cinnamon, almonds, raisins, powdered sugar dusting the top." After a long search, I finally found a recipe that I think does justice to the cake in the story, which symbolized the deep love for family memories that remain indelible - and which, like cake, are always better when shared.