Fatima Daas' debut novel, The Last One, has been adapted into a film. The french film 'La petite dernière' directed by Hafsia Herz, adapted from the original french language novel is in official competition for the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
The Last One, expertly translated by Lara Vergnaud, explores themes of religion, sexuality and interiority.
About The Last One
The 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 hours a day commuting into the city, where she feels like a tourist observing Parisian life. She goes from unstable student to maladjusted adult, doing years of therapy. As she gains distance from her family, she grapples 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.
'Through fiction, I was able to explore everything that had made me,' Daas says. 'Being a woman, but not what was expected of a woman. Being a north African woman, but also French, the only member of the family born in France. Being lesbian, being Muslim. It was almost a luxury for me, through fiction, to make all those identities coexist in my central character. I knew that those identities were in tension and confrontation in society, but for once, through fiction, I felt like I was liberating and reconciling them'
Praise for The Last One
'An absorbing exploration of sexuality and religion' - New European
'Fatima Daas's impressive debut novel has the urgency of well-made cinéma-vérité' - TLS
‘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
'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 Arnet
*\"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**\"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
