An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos―and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor. It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place―until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling. Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought. A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Washington Post Staff Pick A March Indie Next Pick A USA Today Must-Read Book Named a Best Book of 2023 by Shondaland Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Zibby Owens and LitHub Named a Most Anticipated Debut Book of 2023 by Debutiful Named a Must-Read Book of Winter by Entertainment Weekly and Town & Country “Lands like a refreshing, deep breath... My Last Innocent Year is a heartfelt chronicle of a writer who realizes that her stories about girls with feelings matter every bit as much as the ones written by the guy who annotates The New Yorker. ” ―Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review "The premise of a student getting involved with a professor might be (pleasantly, IMHO) familiar, but Florin's particular take on this narrative of power and self-discovery is insightful, specific, and enlivened by secondary characters who play genuinely meaningful roles. I devoured the whole thing in two nights." ―Maggie Shipstead, Conde Nast Traveler “This evocative, eloquent campus confidential lays out the complications of the Clinton-Lewinsky era just as you might remember them . ” ― People Magazine “Florin deftly captures the interior voice of a young woman in her early 20s, as Isabel sifts through thorny issues of consent and power. Writing about this tender period in life can often veer into maudlin territory; Florin not only avoids that type of sentimentality, she gives us a heroine to root for at every turn.” ― The Washington Post “There have always been impressionable young people who fall for older men ― teachers and other mentors ― and there have always been older men who have taken advantage of these crushes. But rarely has their story been told as thoughtfully as in Daisy Alpert Florin's intelligent and sensuous debut novel, My Last Innocent Year , a remarkable coming-of-age story that examines sexual politics, power and lust and the sometimes murky nature of romantic encounters.” ― Minneapolis Star Tribune “A deftly written campus coming-of-age debut narrative, My Last Innocent Year is one of those stories that stays with you.” ―Zibby Owens, GMA “A college senior reckons with the aftermath of what might have been sexual assault by a fellow student ― and tumbles into a love affair with her married professor ― against the backdrop of Clinton-Lewinsky-era America in Florin's resonant, coolly composed debut.” ― Entertainment Weekly “A deeply timely and relevant campus novel.” ― Town & Country “The clarity of this narration―the razor-sharp hindsight, the searing self-examination―creates a kind of portal into the mind of a girl on the cusp of change...This wonderful novel is a must-read.” ―Seattle Book Review “A poignant tale that doesn’t shy from sharp edges, a universal story both timeless and timely. . . An intimate, insightful novel.” ―New York Journal of Books “By the end of Florin’s masterful bildungsroman, our narrator is not somebody’s daughter, she is not someone’s victim, she is not someone’s lover. She is Isabel, and she defines her own story.” ― Chicago Review of Books “A quiet meditation on life and the moments that have shaped us, My Last Innocent Year is a dreamy debut, experienced like a memory unfolding on the page...Effortlessly told, this striking narrative pushes all of us to consider what it is that truly makes us an Adult and, in the face of that, what kind of ad