Last Summer on State Street

By: Toya Wolfe

Narrated by: Shayna Small

• PEN Open Book Award finalist
• Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award winner
• Stephen Curry Underrated Literati Book Club Pick

Named a Best Book of Summer by Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, Veranda, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, and more!

“[A] powerful novel.... Tragic, hopeful, brimming with love, Wolfe’s debut is a remarkable achievement.”—New York Times Book Review

For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer.

Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.

Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.

As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.

Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home—both in one’s history and in one’s self.

"Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut."—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers

©2022 Toya Wolfe (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

A tender story about growing up amins very difficult surroundings

It’s a wonderful book. I loved how completely different all the girls were but still a group of friends

Engaging

Very real being from the Southside. Annoyed with the mispronunciation of DuSable, please fix that!

Excellent.

This coming of age story was fantastic, albeit heartbreaking. The author did a wonderful job of showing the struggles that POC in Chicago faced in the late 90’s and likely still gave today. Highly recommend.

Favorite New Author Award!

I read Last Summer on State Street soon after it was published after seeing it mentioned on several award lists. It was so good I didn’t want it to end. Its portrayal of family, friendship, and home was both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Here’s hoping the author’s next book is already in the works!

Phenomenal!

This was a great listen, very good “coming of age” novel. The things that some have survived in their short lifetime is truly amazing

Heartbreaking truth beautifully told

Thank you, Ms. Toya for the gift of your writing, your voice and yiur ability to bring to life your deep knowledge of the people and the city.

Real Experience in Public Housing

I always wanted to know what it was like to have lived in the public housing projects. This book gives that experience. It shows how insidious gang life and drug culture can be but more importantly shows just that anyone who lived, or still lives, in public housing is a person with many of the same needs and perspectives on life that anyone else has. While I used to think of people who live in public housing as having super human abilities to withstand the challenges, it’s tragic to see the need for basic things safe public spaces, quiet and community. This book also brings across the innately human beauty of the resilience needed to survive sometimes. It makes me wonder why it has to be so difficult in the first place. Thanks

I can't say enough!

I absolutely loved this book. Although the main characters were teenagers for most of the book, this is not a teenage book. I kind of view it as historical fiction. But the history is accurate and the characters are nicely-developed throughout the book. Although I am not a native to Chicago, I have lived in Chicago for most of my adult life. It was refreshing to read about that monumental summer through the eyes of people who lived there, albeit fictional.

Easy listening

I would like for the author to be a lot more descriptive to allow the listeners to visualize the neighborhood and feel how the characters felt to see their neighborhood demolished. Overall,this was a great listen.

A Well Told Story

We all have childhoods, some happy and some sad, many tragic. This beautifully written fiction but not, tells the stories of some little girls all connected to families who influence everything. It fully captures the difference that family/mothers/fathers/siblings and community can make in a child’s life. Wonderfully told and the end, Well Done!