Last Night in Brooklyn

Xochitl Gonzalez’s novel Last Night in Brooklyn (2026) is a work of literary fiction that retells F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby against the modern backdrop of a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn in the mid-2000s. The story is narrated by Alicia Forten, a young advertising copywriter who finds herself caught between her working-class Brooklyn roots and the elite world of her estranged father’s family. Alicia recounts the fateful summer of 2007, when she became entangled in the life of her charismatic and enigmatic neighbor, the self-made fashion designer La Garza, whose ambition and tragic past were intertwined with Alicia’s wealthy cousin, Devon. 

The novel explores several key themes, including The Erasure of Working-Class Spaces, as new luxury developments and a controversial stadium project threaten the authentic cultural landmarks and residents of historically Black and Latinx neighborhoods. It also critiques The Illusion of the American Dream, examining how La Garza’s professional success fails to protect her from the rigid class boundaries and emotional devastation of her past. Amid the social climbing and economic upheaval, the narrative highlights the importance of Finding Authentic Connection Through Art and Culture, locating genuine community in the vivid music, art, and social scenes of Fort Greene. The story captures a specific moment in New York City history, navigating the politics of the 2008 presidential primary, the shadow of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the reckless financial schemes that preceded the 2008 market crash.

This guide refers to the 2026 Flatiron Books first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide contain depictions of racism, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, physical and emotional abuse, child abuse, mental illness, sexual content, antigay bias, cursing, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Alicia Forten, an advertising copywriter in her late twenties, lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, a world away from her working-class upbringing in Gravesend. In the fall of 2010, the news that a beloved local bar, Freddy’s, is being torn down to make way for a new stadium development sends her spiraling into memories of the summer of 2007 and a magnetic, enigmatic fashion designer known as La Garza. 

The novel flashes back to 2005 when Alicia, long engaged to her college boyfriend James, postpones their wedding to focus on her career. This decision leads her to Fort Greene, where she is swept into a vivid social scene of young Black professionals. It is here she first encounters La Garza, a rising legend in the world of fashion, and becomes peripherally aware of the gentrifying forces threatening their neighborhood. Alicia’s life is complicated by her family background; she is the unacknowledged daughter of a wealthy Black lawyer from an elite Martha’s Vineyard family, the Fortens, a world she only glimpses through her cousin, Devon Forten.

In the spring of 2007, a chance encounter with Devon at a wine shop brings Alicia into the orbit of her cousin’s life. Devon, who has just moved back from Paris with his wife, Marla, and purchased a brownstone, introduces Alicia to his friend, Matteo Jones, a handsome financier who moonlights as a DJ. A powerful attraction sparks between Alicia and Matteo, culminating in a surprise kiss in the bathroom, though Matteo leaves the party abruptly afterward. A few weeks later, a lonely Alicia agrees to accompany a nervous Marla to a party at the Dumbo loft of Felix, an artist Devon has hired to keep his wife entertained. At the debaucherous party, Alicia learns the transactional nature of Felix and Marla’s friendship and sees the artist’s unfinished portraits of her cousin and his wife. 

Several days later, Alicia receives a personal, handwritten invitation to one of La Garza’s famously exclusive parties across the street from her apartment. There, La Garza announces that her fashion company is going public with an IPO. Matteo, who is also at the party, reveals a shocking secret to Alicia: Years ago, Devon and La Garza were in a serious romance, which Devon ended cruelly by ghosting her when he left for business school. He speculates that La Garza’s invitation to Alicia was a calculated move to get back in Devon’s orbit.

La Garza soon confirms Matteo’s suspicion, inviting Alicia to brunch and asking her to orchestrate a “business meeting” with Devon. Moved by the parallels to her own mother’s story of heartbreak, Alicia agrees. The reunion at La Garza’s studio is electric with unresolved history. La Garza presents Devon with a custom suit, inside which she has embroidered a reference to the Simply Red song “Holding Back the Years,” a nod to their past. The encounter leaves Devon emotionally devastated, angry at Alicia for re-opening old wounds. Yet as Alicia begins a passionate affair with Matteo and ends her long-stagnant engagement to James, Devon becomes the public champion of La Garza’s IPO. 

Devon and La Garza embark on a flagrant affair, unconcerned that Marla is summering nearby in the Hamptons. The affair is brazenly announced to their social circle when a painting by Felix, depicting La Garza on Devon’s lap, is unveiled at La Garza’s Hamptons pop-up shop opening. The situation escalates when Marla, alerted by a Page Six blind item, enlists Devon’s parents to stage an intervention at a tense family brunch in the Hamptons, to which La Garza, Alicia, and Matteo are also invited. Marla and her mother-in-law using social etiquette to belittle La Garza, but La Garza refuses to be shamed, confronting Devon’s mother about her role in their breakup years prior. She then gives Devon an ultimatum: leave with her, or stay. In front of his parents and wife, Devon’s father commands him to remember his “responsibilities.” After a moment of excruciating silence, Devon sits back down, abandoning La Garza for the second time in her life. 

Alicia and Matteo try but fail to find La Garza in the wake of Devon’s abandonment. The next day, the newspaper reports that Omar, a close friend of La Garza’s, was arrested in a money laundering sting connected to La Garza’s shady investor, Augusts Jankovskis. Alicia eventually finds a distraught La Garza back at her loft. La Garza confesses her entire life story: Her childhood of poverty, her sister’s death on 9/11, being saved from financial ruin by Augusts, and her deep, complicated love for Devon. 

Matteo learns from Devon that Marla is pregnant. Overwhelmed by the news, Alicia seeks refuge at a public dance party in Fort Greene Park. During an emotional catharsis while dancing, she faints. Upon waking, she has a terrifying realization that La Garza, who is a fixture at the event, is suddenly absent. She rushes to her loft and discovers La Garza dead in the bathtub. The autopsy reveals La Garza was strangled. The police abandon the investigation, and though Alicia and Matteo are certain Augusts or his associates are responsible, they remain silent out of fear. Shortly after, La Garza’s studio is destroyed by arson. Augusts vanishes, and La Garza’s murder remains unsolved. 

Devon and Marla sell their brownstone and disappear from Alicia’s life. The tragedy prompts Matteo to reevaluate his own life; he invites Alicia to come with him and his mother, who has cancer, to Hawaii. Recognizing she must forge her own identity, separate from any man, Alicia turns him down, and they part ways. 

The narrative returns to 2010 when Alicia attends the closing party at Freddy’s, a final, defiant celebration of a Brooklyn that is vanishing. The following morning, hungover and grieving, Alicia walks through the borough’s now-unrecognizable streets. She finds the luxury condos Devon built where old brownstones once stood. Consumed by a final surge of rage for all that has been lost, she grabs a brick from a nearby construction site and hurls it through one of the condo’s plate-glass windows before running off into the morning.