The Last House on the Street

Bestselling author Diane Chamberlain published the historical fiction novel The Last House on the Street in 2021. The book features two distinct timelines. The first of these is 1965 and centers around a naive, white college student, Ellie, who volunteers to help register voters in her native rural county in North Carolina. Ellie encounters culture shock on multiple levels as she discovers the great disparity between Black and white living conditions as well as the entrenched racist bias held by people who are close to her. The second storyline takes place in 2010 when a widowed young professional woman, Kayla, encounters veiled threats and vandalism when she moves into the dream house she built with her late husband. Ellie returns to the neighborhood after 45 years. The women meet and eventually discover that they both face momentous, unanswered questions. As a lifelong advocate for equality, Chamberlain lives in North Carolina and shares commonalities with both of the fictional protagonists.

This guide refers to the St. Martin’s Griffin paperback version.

Content Warning: The novel discusses racism, racist violence, suicide, and miscarriage.

Plot Summary

Chamberlain, through most of the book, alternates chapters between Kayla in 2010 and Ellie in 1965. Kayla Carter, an architect grieving the recent accidental death of her husband, Jackson, prepares to move with her toddler, Rainie, into her just completed dream house in Round Hill, North Carolina.