The Last Diva: A Novel

The new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half

You might think that feuds are about hatred, but really they are love stories.

When Roz Randall and Cleo Wright form a singing group as teenagers in 1963, they are instantly bound by talent and ambition. Like their friendship, their fame appears fated—until rivalry seeps in. As their trajectories splinter and their lives churn through towering success and bottomless regret, Roz and Cleo remain consumed by each other to the end. Sometimes envy burns even hotter than talent.   

When Cleo dies, the world mourns the legendary diva and hungers for her story. Roz Randall, her greatest rival, might be the one person who can tell it. Roz, facing her legacy, now has the chance to re-shape the portrait of their decades-long friendship and feud. What does she owe to Cleo and their past? Who owns a star’s secrets when the performance finally ends?  

Spanning the 1960s to the present and pulsing with the sounds of R&B, soul, gospel, and disco, The Last Diva richly illustrates the price of fame, the bonds that define us, and a culture that leaches from its legends. Intimate and epic, it confirms Brit Bennett as one of the most extraordinary writers of her generation.