The Last Anniversary

Liane Moriarty’s The Last Anniversary (2005) is a contemporary Australian novel. Like most of Moriarty’s novels, The Last Anniversary combines elements of the romance and mystery genres and is often classified as “women’s fiction” because the author is a woman and most of the main characters are women. The themes addressed, such as Loss of Identity in Relationships, are commonly associated with “women’s fiction.” Moriarty is a critically and commercially successful author of many novels, including Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, both of which have been adapted for television. The Last Anniversary also addresses the themes of Fate Versus Self-Determination and Female Solidarity and Secrets. The novel explores these themes by focusing on female characters whose relationships with their loved ones evolve through considerable conflict and the overcoming of obstacles.

The edition of the text used here is the 2010 Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain references to postpartum depression, suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, sexual violence, domestic violence, coercive control, anti-fat biases, and anti-gay biases.

Plot Summary

Sophie Honeywell, a cheerful and outgoing woman in her late 30s, is contacted by her ex-boyfriend Thomas, who is now married to another woman. Thomas tells her that his aunt Connie has died and left Sophie her house on Scribbly Gum Island. Sophie and Aunt Connie were not particularly close, but she is delighted to inherit the property, which is beautiful and meaningful to her. Sophie grew up visiting the island.

The island and Aunt Connie are linked to a mystery that became known as the Munro Baby Mystery. In the 1930s, sisters Connie and Rose visited the home of their neighbors Jack and Alice Munro only to discover that Jack and Alice had vanished, leaving their newborn daughter home alone. The sisters built the mystery into a thriving business; since then curious tourists have flocked to the island to see the house and meet the Munro Baby. The baby was called Enigma and is now Thomas’s grandmother. Thomas and his sister, Veronika, grew up on the island, and Veronika is furious that Connie left the house to Sophie instead of to her.

Grace, Thomas’s cousin, is a successful children’s book author and illustrator. She is married to a loving husband, Callum, and has recently had her first child, Jake. Callum returns to work, leaving Grace home alone with the baby all day. Though she does not realize it, Grace is suffering from extreme postpartum depression. She begins to feel that Callum would be happier with a different wife and Jake with a different mother.

Sophie meets with her parents, to whom she is very close. Her parents’ romantic relationship gave her high expectations for her own love life. They are very loving and supportive of her, and hope that she will be happy in her new island life. Connie’s will included a letter to Sophie mentioning that, through dealing with Connie’s house, Sophie will meet a man whom Connie thinks she will fall in love with. Sophie wonders about this man’s identity and thinks she will meet him at Connie’s funeral. At the funeral, she instantly gets on well with a kind, attractive man who turns out to be Callum. Sophie feels guilty that she has a crush on a married man. She also rekindles her friendship with Thomas’s family members who attend the funeral. Thomas’s mother, Margie, is the family matriarch; she plays a large role in running the family business and keeping everything organized. She has recently started a diet with Weight Watchers, as she believes losing weight will help her self-esteem. Her husband, Ron, frequently mocks her and does not appreciate her.

The family is preparing for the Munro Baby Mystery’s anniversary celebration. Grace invites Sophie to her house for lunch. Sophie brings a walnut cake but finds out when there that Grace has a life-threatening nut allergy. Grace is pleased to see how well Sophie gets along with Callum and Jake and starts orchestrating scenarios to give Sophie and Callum time together.

Sophie meets Ian, Aunt Connie’s solicitor, and Rick, Connie’s gardener. Both men are interesting and handsome, and Sophie is equally drawn to each of them. Both seem like contenders for the mystery love interest.

Meanwhile, Margie is approached by a man at her Weight Watchers meeting who proposes a side project for the two of them. Enigma is hurt that Margie has declined to attend because she has her secret Weight Watchers project. Veronika confronts Ron about not noticing Margie’s weight loss and treating her poorly, while Ron is threatened by Margie’s newfound confidence and fears that she is having an affair.

Veronika has been dating a girl from her kickboxing class. Veronika has also decided that she will solve the Munro Baby Mystery and is looking for someone online who can offer information about Jack and Alice, her missing great-grandparents. She tells her family that a man who has information will attend the party. Enigma and Rose are annoyed about this.

Grace plans her own death by ingesting nuts at the anniversary party. She hopes that Sophie and Callum will get married after she is dead. Sophie goes on dates with both Ian and Rick. They are enjoyable, but Sophie realizes she has fallen in love with Callum. She and Callum spend more time together as Grace plots their union.

At the anniversary celebration, Sophie is dressed as the Fairy Floss Fairy. There is too much brandy in the mulled wine and everyone gets far drunker than intended. Sophie encounters Ian, who tells her he is giving up his career to become a rafting instructor in New Zealand, and Rick, who tells her he is getting back with his ex. Veronika arrives with her new girlfriend and tells each of her family members that she is gay. Sophie encounters Thomas and his wife, Deborah; Deborah tells Sophie that Thomas is still in love with Sophie. The man who claims to have information on Alice and Jack Munro arrives and threatens Rose and Enigma with his knowledge. Rose is ready to end the charade and confesses that Enigma is actually her daughter; she and Connie fabricated Jack and Alice, and their whole mystery business is a sham. Callum and Sophie dance together.

Ron realizes how much he misses his wife and how little he appreciates her. He calls her, but another man answers her phone. Ron rushes off to challenge him and sees a familiar figure arrive at the island. Grace starts to eat some walnut-filled samosas as a suicide attempt. Callum and Sophie kiss but are interrupted by panic at the party when Grace has a serious allergic reaction. Callum pushes Sophie away and rushes over to Grace. A woman stabs Grace with an EpiPen and saves her life; this is the mystery figure Ron saw: Laura, Grace’s long-absent mother.

The next day, everyone is hungover. Grace refuses to acknowledge her suicide attempt, and only her mother realizes what she tried to do. Rose tells Sophie the truth about Jack and Alice. When Rose was 15, she became pregnant as the result of rape. On the remote island, she and Connie created fictional neighbors who were expecting a child and manufactured a story about their disappearance. When it became a big story, they built the business around the mystery of their home and disappearance.

Sophie encounters an old friend, Eddie. She realizes that this is who Connie wanted her to meet. Eddie is gay, but he and Sophie decide to start a family together.

Rose paints her family and recalls when she took Enigma to meet her biological father. He said she was ugly, so Rose hit him over the head and accidentally killed him. She has never told anyone this.