The Last American Man [Paperback]

Finalist for the National Book Award

From theNew York Timesbestselling author ofEat Pray Love,Big MagicandCity of Girlscomes a riveting exploration of manhood and all its complicated meanings through the portrait of an American Mountain Man. 

In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are.

Wickedly well-written...Without compromising her obvious admiration, Ms. Gilbert presents a warts-and-all portrait of Mr. Conway and a sophisticated understanding of why those warts are only natural.... A vigorous, engaging book.  —The New York Times Book Review

Gilbert artfully taps into this unique life to create a fascinating, deeply thought-out and anthralling narrative.  —Los Angeles Times

A vivid, nuanced portrait of an endlessly complicated man.  —San Francisco Chronicle

The Last American Manrelates the riveting story of Conway's odyssey from a child of affluent parents, to mountain man, to the owner of 1,000 acres of woods and fields in western North Carolina. Gilbert sees in Conway's life a parable for our time, a way of capturing how our culture is sappl³’