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The Millions “Most Anticipated” Book of 2015

On a small, unnamed coral atoll in the South Pacific, a group of troubled dreamers must face the possibility that the hopes  they’ve labored after so single-mindedly might not lead them to the happiness they feel they were promised. Ann and Richard, an aspiring, Los Angeles power couple, are already sensing the cracks in their version of the American dream when their life unexpectedly implodes, leading them to brashly run away from home to a Robinson Crusoe idyll. Dex Cooper, lead singer of the rock band, Prospero, is facing his own slide from greatness, experimenting with artistic asceticism while accompanied by his sexy, young, and increasingly entrepreneurial muse, Wende. Loren, the French owner of the resort sauvage, has made his own Gauguin-like retreat from the world years before, only to find that the modern world has become impossible to disconnect from. Titi, descendent of Tahitian royalty, worker, and eventual inheritor of the resort, must fashion a vision of the island’s future that includes its indigenous people, while her partner, Cooked, is torn between anarchy and lust. By turns funny and tragic, The Last Good Paradise explores our modern, complex and often, self-contradictory discontents, crafting an exhilirating story about our need to connect in an increasingly networked but isolating world.

Reviews

“The Last Good Paradise is at once a study in ambition, and a rollicking entertainment…and a page-turning survey of modern technology. Just when you think you know where this novel is going, Soli fascinates and surprises at every twist and turn.”
—Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here

“Passions ignite and plots are hatched as Soli’s wise, piercing insights into human nature ground the novel and make it a rewarding read.” 
— BOOKLIST

“The Novel has smart things to say about the frailty human relationships, the importance of responsibility to others, and whether its possible to be truly “off the grid” in modern society.”
— LIBRARY JOURNAL

“With elegant prose that can swell into poetic intervals or sharp commentary, Soli presents a book that courses with flawed, colorful characters, lavish food descriptions (courtesy of a chef protagonist) and political intrigue. But beneath its lovely veneer is a book that confronts the American urge to escape.”
—MICHIGAN DAILY(read full review)

“The writing is smooth and as stunning as the paradise Soli has created. This novel will make you think about regrets, what truly makes a person happy, and what obligations we have to others as members of the same tribe and to the world as our collective home.”
–BOOKNAROUND (read full review)

“Hilarious… melancholy… Tatjana Soli’s new novel is a wild ride across the ocean and a dangerous dive into desire and greed and revelations about revenge and ultimately, love.”
— SUSAN STRAIGHT, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, AUTHOR OF HIGHWIRE MOON

“Funny, sad, and hauntingly moving, Soli’s brilliant new novel is about fractured dreams, broken people, and our desperate yearning to grab for that elusive second chance, no matter the cost. Drenched in a sunny paradise climate, Soli’s novel asks, what’s enough in life to be happy, and then delivers an answer that’s as spell-binding as it is profound.” 
—CAROLINE LEAVITT, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF IS THIS TOMORROW AND PICTURES OF YOU

“The Last Good Paradise is at once a study in ambition, and a rollicking entertainment…and a page-turning survey of modern technology. Just when you think you know where this novel is going, Soli fascinates and surprises at every twist and turn.”
—JONATHAN EVISON, AUTHOR OF WEST OF HERE

Dear Reader

Behind the Scenes

Location, Location, Location

(A Sort Of Love Story)

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote.
— Melville, Moby-Dick

My mother was born in Slovenia. I was born in Austria. Soon after, mother and baby,we began our nomad existence. We lived, briefly, in various countries in Europe before settling in Southern Italy, mostly in Naples and Sorrento. My happiest childhood memories are associated with Italy. We lived with an Italian family who treated us like family. In season I played at picking grapes and olives in the fields with the adults. We ate outside at long tables: large pots of pasta e fagioli or pasta with fresh garden tomatoes. I remember helping my mom lower a basket by rope outside our second story window and haul up fresh mozzarella wrapped in grape leaves.

When we came to the US, we lived briefly in New York state before getting in our car, a Mustang, and driving across the country. My mother wanted to see the West. I remember sitting in an IHOP in Winnemucca, Nevada, and being mesmerized by someone ordering a stack of pancakes (which I’d never seen) with a fried egg on top, then syrup poured over the whole thing. My mom bought a tooled leather cowboy belt.
Needless to say, this was not textbook childrearing, and yet I remember sitting on our rooftop terrace in Italy discussing another trip to the US, and feeling sorry for my school friends who had to stay in the same place. Traveling seemed a great adventure, and my mom always made it fun. I got to pick out my new wardrobe and a suitcase for our trip back to Naples aboard an ocean liner. We went by boat to take our dog. I was allowed to sit with my mom in the adult dining room. When I was good, a waiter followed us back to our cabin carrying a silver tray filled with cookies and milk for bedtime. Was I ever homesick? Did I ever just want to stay in place? I remember my mom telling me that home is wherever the two of us were. It was. It is.
Ironically for the last twenty plus years we have been fairly stationary. She mostly in Central California; me, mostly in Southern California. But the wanderlust is still there. We’ve changed houses a lot. We talk endlessly of other possibilities, weighing them as if we might actually pick up and move. We sublimate by traveling. My mother likes to stay in hotels; in fact, she would prefer to live in one, or at least find a house without a kitchen. I always try to stay in apartments. That is the way I can best imagine living there. Whether it is Buenos Aires, Florence, or Istanbul, one of my must activities is grocery shopping to get to know a place. This horrifies my mother.

One of our favorite shows to watch on television is House Hunters International. We have become armchair nomads. We always call each other on the phone: Did you see that apartment in Rome? That house in Granada? The tree house in the Costa Rican rainforest? We are fascinated by these intrepid travelers, some relocating for jobs, some for adventure, others for a higher quality of life (an inordinate number of these people come from Los Angeles, my mother likes to point out). As their choices narrow, we root for these strangers. We long for a sequel to show what became of them. It would be a bit of a letdown if they had returned back to their old lives. Imagine if Gauguin had given up the islands after a few years and returned to being a stockbroker in Paris. Picture him at dinner parties bragging about his “nature” experience.

The spark that set off The Last Good Paradise was wanderlust — Ann dreams of going off to a desert island, and circumstances conspire to fulfill that fantasy. When she meets Loren, who has given up his life in France for Polynesia, that is their bond — hunger for a new place — and he shows her both the happy and unhappy consequences of that decision.

T S Eliot writes “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” One way to understand where we are from is to go away and gain distance, but in the modern world, many of us won’t actually go home. Instead perhaps the end of all our exploring will be to find our true selves, wherever they happen to be taking up residence. That is surely a trip worth taking.

Discussion Questions

THE LAST GOOD PARADISE IS SOMEWHAT A DEPARTURE FROM YOUR FIRST TWO BOOKS. WHAT INSPIRED THE NOVEL?

When I finished my second novel, I felt like I wanted a different mood and tone for my next book. My agent had mentioned liking a short story of mine that he’d read. He said that it seemed there was more there than what I had written. As I went over it, a new feeling developed — a bit of playfulness and lightness. It was a time in my life when I noticed many people around me reevaluating their life choices, and in certain cases making scary changes. So many novels are about coming-of-age, I thought it would be interesting to explore how things turned out, and what are the second acts in life all about. What if we made the wrong choice, or what if our desires change?

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW THE TITLE RELATES TO THE BOOK’S SUBJECT MATTER?

The title captures a phenomenon I’ve been thinking about for at least the last ten years. I noticed it when my mom suddenly started getting all these newsletters about retiring to exotic destinations. Baby boomers especially are at that age where they are looking for an idyllic place to live more fulfilling lives. I’m thinking about the stories one hears about people who sell everything and move to the California wine country to open a B & B, but that’s getting harder and harder to do so now they are going further afield. We’ve had friends move to Europe, Costa Rica, and Thailand. I wanted to write about the impulse to start over.

THERE’S A FAIR AMOUNT OF HUMOR AS WELL AS DARKNESS IN THE BOOK. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL?

That was the motor of the book. Before I started the first page, I intentionally labeled it for myself as a tragic-comedy. As a technical challenge, I wanted to play with humor, even slapstick and farce in places, but I wanted to juxtapose that with more serious parts, even tragedy. I think mixing these elements, shifting back and forth, creates a unique energy. In an essay by Karen Joy Fowler (a fabulous writer, you must read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves), she mentions Robert Hass talking about writing that can simultaneously be read as Shakespearean tragedy and a Mel Brooks comedy. That’s exactly what I set out to write.

THE SETTINGS IN YOUR BOOKS ARE ALWAYS DISTINCT. WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC?

Probably the fact that it has been too long since I’ve been on vacation! Seriously, though, I’ve always had the fantasy of living on an island in the South Pacific, just like my character Ann. I drool over my tropical screen-savers just like she does, but it’s about more than just a vacation. I wanted to get at the fantasy of running away from it all. On difficult days, many of us fantasize about taking off, but few of us do. Then you hear a story of the most unlikely person suddenly making a dramatic life change. Especially when you reach your 40’s and 50’s, it’s sobering to think that our lives, no matter how good, will pretty much be the same from then on. Am I getting gloomy?

THE BOOK HAS A LARGE CAST. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL? WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER?

In my last book I kept the action mainly to one place, and I liked the compression that it gave the story. What could be more limited, claustrophobic if you will, than a small desert atoll? Putting a large number of diverse characters together in such a place. It creates a pressure-cooker environment. Anyone who remembers the friendships and meltdown of summer camp, or even the average family vacation, can attest to the fact that one’s emotions are heightened in such circumstances.
I love all the characters in the book. They are seriously flawed but trying to live right, or at least their vision of right, but I have to admit I feel closest to Richard. I always had a secret fantasy to be a chef (I DID want to be a pastry chef), and I empathize with his mix of passion and doubt.

WHAT ARE THE CURRENTLY READING?

I’ve been almost exclusively reading research material for the historical novel I am working on, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been accumulating piles of TBR books. Three books that I recently read in the last year and loved are: Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson; The Blazing World, by Siri Hustvedt; and The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis. The last is the freshest in my mind. It’s a big, old-fashioned novel in the best sense, recalling Greene and Conrad, but very much of our time topically. A wonderful read.

I’m in the middle of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It’s the best contemporary novel I’ve read in years. Every few pages I flip back to the author bio and think, how did I miss this guy? He’s from Tasmania and has won many awards in Australia, but somehow I missed his previous work. Just based on my reading so far I’ve greedily ordered all his past titles.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?

I’m finishing up a historical novel. It’s too early to talk about, but I’m very excited.

WHAT ARE YOUR OBSESSIONS (NOW, COMPARED TO WHEN WE LAST ASKED)?

I have an ever-widening number of obsessions, many of which I gave to my characters in this last book: real estate, house remodeling, gardening, cooking, music. My constant obsession is writing and reading. Every new book is an adventure, and I’m a total research junkie. History is becoming a bigger and bigger fascination with me. Writers are like actors in that we get to inhabit other people, places, and time periods. I feel lucky every day I sit down at my desk.