The Last Love Story is a novel that wears its heart on its sleeve. Set in an unnamed city divided in two by politics, a river and a razor-wire border, it is the story of two young people from opposite sides of the river. Paul is a Northerner, stranded in the South when the barriers went up. At the start he meets Judith, a person he has long been searching for, and a romance develops, leading to a journey to the north. The novel is deeply engaged with the idea of walls: those between peoples (such as in Israel or Berlin) and those we put around people to trap them. It has important things to say about the nature of power, people’s willingness to acquiesce to their leaders and what it means to follow your own will. It also talks about terrorism, refugees, surveillance and personal freedom. Unfortunately its florid style lets it down. Full of metaphor and allusion, I found the telling sometimes distracted me from an otherwise compelling story. In a vein of politically engaged speculative fiction (covering similar ground to Orwell’s 1984), it will appeal to readers who enjoy a meticulous and serious novel.

Lachlan Jobbins is a writer and bookseller at UNSW Bookshop

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