The Last Girls (B Fmt) Lee, Smith

Four college friends made a raft trip down the Mississippi in 1966, floating through Huckleberry Finn country with big dreams and bigger hangovers. Thirty-five years later, they're back — older, messier, and hauling decades of secrets onto a luxury steamboat. One of them never made it off that first trip alive, and her ghost still hovers over everything. Lee Smith writes Southern women with the kind of sharp, tender precision that makes you feel like you're eavesdropping on your own aunt's book club. This is about friendship that survives everything except honesty, about the stories we tell ourselves to get through life, and about what happens when those stories finally crack open. Funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human — the kind of novel that understands women's lives without romanticizing them. Perfect for anyone who loved *Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood* but wanted more bite.