**Last Night in Montreal Review

PUB DATE: June 2009

Thanks to Caitlin at Unbridled Books for sending me this book to read and review and to be apart of the tour for this book. Honestly with a title like ” Last Night In Montreal” how could I turn this book down? I love to read books with a setting that I know all about. The details were right on and it felt like I was there.

Isn’t the cover great? I love the cover and I really love it when it relates to the book as this one does. There is a reference in the book to the broken plate and pomegranate juice in the first chapter.

“She came out dressed all in black and carrying the three pieces of a plate that had fallen off the bed the night before; it was a light shade of blue, and sticky with pomegranate juice.”

The book is told in various view points from the characters involved: Lilia, Eli, Christopher and Michaela. The book moves back and forth from present to past in alternating chapters. I usually don’t like books like this because of the flip but this worked well with the book and made you want to find out why Lilia’s father had abducted her.

The story is about Lilia and her disapperance from her small Quebec town when she was seven years old. The town is between St Jean and the American border which is several hours from Montreal. Her father has taken her across the American border in various cities and states in the US. They have been travelling her whole life and they never stay in the same city for long because they are afraid of getting caught by the police and Lilia being forced back to her mother.

Eventually her father meets a woman and he decides he is done running and wants to be with her. For Lilia she can’t settle down and moves on. Her father still sends her money in case she needs it and works to get some. She never stays long in one place and as soon as it seems she is making friends she leaves them without them knowing until its too late.

This is what happened to Eli. He has become obsessed with her living and wants to know why so when he gets a postcard one day saying the Lilia is in Montreal and they will help Eli find her. He jumps at the chance and goes from Brooklyn to Montreal and spends his life savings trying to find her.

As I was reading the book I kept wondering why did Michaela dislike Lilia so much? What was the accident that Michaela kept obsessing about wanting answers to? Also if Christopher was always so close why didn’t he do more? Why was he so obsessed over this case?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Emily St. John Mandel was born on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1979.She studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York. She lives in Brooklyn.

You can check out Emily’s website here