ABOUT THE BOOK
The youngest daughter of Algerian immigrants, Fatima Daas is raised in a home where love and sexuality are considered taboo and signs of
affection avoided. Living in the majority-Muslim Clichy-sous-Bois, she often spends more than three hours a day on public transport to and
from the city, where she feels like a tourist observing Parisian manners. She goes from unstable student to maladjusted adult, doing four years of therapy – her longest relationship. But as she gains distance from her family and comes into her own, she grapples more directly with her attraction to women and how it fits with her religion, which she continues to practice. When Nina comes into her life, she doesn’t know
exactly what she needs but feels that something crucial has been missing.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
FATIMA DAAS (the author’s pseudonym) was born in 1995 and grew up in the Parisian banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois, where her parents settled after arriving from Algeria. In high school Daas participated in writing workshops led by Tanguy Viel. Well aware of the contradictions, she defines herself as Muslim, feminist and gay.
Author photo © Francis Ware
REVIEWS
‘A gorgeous and galvanising read’
SABRINA MAHFOUZ, GUARDIAN >
'Rarely have I read a novel about identity that demands its readers sit with contradictions & complexity this much’
BAD FORM
>
‘The writing triumphs by keeping a low profile, without trying to make too much noise, and with a show of compassion for her people’ VIRGINIE DESPENTES
‘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' EMAN QUOTAH, author of Bride of the Sea
‘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 HORMAN, author of
Justine
'Fatima Daas’s impressive debut novel has the urgency of well-made cinéma vérité’ TLS >
'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 has chosen not to play the designated role of "the chick from the banlieue who made it." All of this makes her path harder, as does her unwillingness to iron out the conflict she sees between her religion and her sexuality’ NLR
‘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’
KRISTEN ARNETT, author of
Mostly Dead Things
and
With Teeth
' It's experimental & unflinching...essential reading' ZEBA TALKHANI, author of My Past is a Foreign Country
MORE IN THE SMALL AXE SERIES
