I picked up *The Last Time They Met* expecting another tragic romance, but Anita Shreve’s storytelling gripped me in ways I didn’t anticipate. The backward chronology—starting from middle-aged Linda and Thomas’s reunion and unraveling their past—felt like peeling an onion, each layer revealing deeper heartache.

The Africa sections? Divisive, sure. Some reviewers called them sluggish, but I adored the lush, almost dreamlike descriptions. They weren’t just backdrop; they mirrored the characters’ emotional displacement. That said, I’ll admit skimming a few overly poetic paragraphs when I craved forward momentum.

Then came *the ending*. No spoilers, but it hit like a gut punch—ambiguous yet devastatingly fitting. It recontextualized everything before it, leaving me staring at the ceiling at 2 AM. Is it manipulative? Maybe. But it’s also brave storytelling.

Pro tip: Read *The Weight of Water* first if you can (Linda’s backstory there adds texture), but this stands powerfully alone. Not every page soars, yet the emotional payoff? Unforgettable.