Anita de Monte Laughs Last

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, read by Stacy Gonzalez, Jonathan Gregg and Jessica Pimentel.

THE REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK FOR MARCH 2024

‘I have goosebumps just talking about this story’ REESE WITHERSPOON
‘Smart, funny – and furious’ MARIE CLAIRE
‘Genre-busting ... A clear-eyed deconstruction of skewed value systems’ FINANCIAL TIMES

It’s 1985 and Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City. Thirteen years later, art history student Raquel is preparing her final thesis, feeling the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities as the wealthy students around her. Anita’s name – and the mysterious circumstances around her death – has all but faded from view.

When Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. But then she stumbles upon Anita’s story, and is struck not only by the question of who gets to leave a legacy, but by how her own relationship eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist . . .

* A NEW YORK TIMES, ELLE AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING HIGHLIGHT FOR 2024 *

* AUDIE FINALIST IN THE MULTI-VOICED PERFORMANCE CATEGORY *

Critics Review

Set across dual timelines in which both so much and so little has changed, this is a smart, funny – and furious – shout out to agency, ownership and the female creative spirit in the face of art world hierarchies, hypocrisies and –isms
Marie Claire
Halfway through the novel she upends things, turning a narrative about race relations into a ghost story ... It is this kind of genre-busting that distinguishes her writing ... Gonzalez crosshatches her characters with flaws and redeeming aspects ... Gonzalez is similarly nuanced in her clear-eyed deconstructions of skewed value systems
Financial Times
Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a cry for justice. Writing with urgency and rage, Gonzalez speaks up for those who have been othered and deemed unworthy, robbed of their legacy
Washington Post
There is an innate rage and melody in the prose, which is beautifully written
Glamour
A passionate and piercing examination of power in elite art circles
Sydney Morning Herald
Gonzalez’s sophomore outing deserves a mouse on her doorstep in gratitude ... This is a brutal but ultimately heartwarming and certainly thought-provoking novel of Latinx magic, family, and feminine power
Booklist (starred review)
Gonzalez shrewdly anatomizes racial and class hierarchies ... Gonzalez, herself a Brown graduate, brilliantly captures the daily slights endured by someone perceived as Other, from microaggressions to brutally racist behavior ... An uncompromising message, delivered via a gripping story with two engaging heroines
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Part campus novel, part ghost story, Xochitl Gonzalez’s second novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, fear­lessly takes on racism and misogyny in the rarefied world of fine art and art history ... Though told with humour and a light touch, Gonzalez doesn’t shy away from serious issues: the erasure of women from the art history canon and the racism often faced by first generation students of colour at Ivy League colleges ... Anita de Monte Laughs Last boldly questions the choices behind what we are taught and demands that the complete story be disclosed
BookPage (starred review)
Funny, piercing, and full of moxie ... What Xochitl Gonzalez has written is an affirmation for anyone who's ever had to 'work twice as hard to get half as much.' Anita de Monte Laughs Last is rollicking, melodic, tender, and true. And oh so very wise
Robert Jones, Jr., author of THE PROPHETS, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction
Bravo! A remarkable story about reclaiming what has been erased. Reader, enjoy!
Ana Castillo, author of SO FAR FROM GOD
I might have actually gasped when I read the news that Anita De Monte Laughs Last would be published in 2024. Gonzalez has that particular penchant for navigating perspectives in a voice that’s at once delightfully humorous and sobering. Anita demonstrates that penchant from its earliest sentences, flowing right into the New York City art world of the ’80s and ’90s with enviable ease
Elle
Unflinching and thought-provoking
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