Last Night in Brooklyn Summary: Gritty Brooklyn Drama
TL;DR: Last Night in Brooklyn Summary: A Novel of Ambition and Loss
In mid-2000s Brooklyn, a twenty-eight-year-old copywriter named Alicia Canales Forten is engaged to a steady pre-med student and expected to move upstate.
Instead, she sublets an apartment in Fort Greene and enters a world of designers, DJs, and developers.
Xochitl Gonzalez’s Last Night in Brooklyn follows Alicia as she becomes entangled with her magnetic neighbor, indie fashion designer La Garza, and the wealthy cousin who once broke La Garza’s heart.
The novel moves through a borough being remade block by block, where house parties and diner runs sit beside glass towers and private equity.
- Setting: Brooklyn, 2005–2010, during the Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center fight and the Obama–Clinton primary.
- Narrator: Alicia Canales Forten, torn between her working-class Puerto Rican mother’s world and her absent father’s elite Black family.
- Central figure: La Garza, a self-made designer from the Farragut Houses who takes her label public on NASDAQ.
- Core conflict: La Garza’s rekindled affair with the married, wealthy Devon Forten, which Alicia unknowingly sets in motion.
- Tone: Lyrical, candid, and nostalgic, with an undertow of impending disaster.
- Outcome: The novel ends with a death, an unsolved case, and a narrator who chooses independence over any man’s version of her future.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
Readers drawn to contemporary literary fiction about New York City, gentrification, class mobility, and complicated female friendships. It also suits readers interested in coming-of-age stories set against a specific historical moment.
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Alicia Canales Forten | Twenty-eight-year-old narrator and copywriter who leaves her fiancé and moves to Fort Greene. |
| Garza Rivera (“La Garza” / “Gigi”) | Brooklyn-born fashion designer who builds a label from scratch and takes it public. |
| Devon Forten | Alicia’s wealthy cousin, a Harvard-educated investment banker, and La Garza’s former lover. |
| Matteo Jones (“DJ Tayo”) | Wall Street analyst and DJ who becomes Alicia’s lover. |
| Marla Forten | Devon’s wife and heiress to the Miss Paulette Jamaican beef patty business. |
| James | Alicia’s pre-med fiancé, studying in Syracuse. |
| Lorraine | Alicia’s roommate and coworker, pursuing acting and musical theater. |
| Augusts Jankovskis (“Augie”) | Stockbroker and early investor in La Garza’s line, tied to SEC pump-and-dump schemes. |
| Omar | La Garza’s manager and right-hand man. |
| Marcus | Alicia’s friend in television, evicted from a rent-stabilized apartment. |
| Leti | Photo editor at The Source and member of Alicia’s social circle. |
| Aaron Francis | Corporate lawyer in Alicia’s friend group. |
| Felix | Puerto Rican artist and Marla’s protégé who paints the portrait exposing the affair. |
| Soto Rivera | La Garza’s younger brother, a US Army soldier serving in Afghanistan. |
| Auntie Tricia Forten & Mr. Forten | Devon’s status-conscious parents from British Guiana and Martha’s Vineyard. |
| Alicia’s Grandmother (“Wela”) | Alicia’s Puerto Rican grandmother in Gravesend. |
| El Fantasma | Alicia’s absent father, an attorney from the Forten family. |
| Carmen | Owner of a DeKalb Avenue bar and a fashion photographer. |
| Nino | Jersey-born Dumbo artist who carves ice sculptures with a chainsaw. |
| Tony | Felix’s partner in the Dumbo loft. |
| Raquel | Editor at The Fader and Marcus’s former roommate. |
Last Night in Brooklyn Summary
Spoilers ahead.
The novel opens in 2010 at the final night of Freddy’s bar, with Alicia Canales Forten looking back on the summer of 2007. In late 2005 she postponed her engagement to James and sublet a Fort Greene apartment with her coworker Lorraine.
Through Lorraine she meets a circle of young Black and Latino creatives: Marcus, Leti, Aaron Francis, and Chuck. That first night she watches a local designer named La Garza win a shopping cart race down Lafayette Avenue.
In spring 2007, Alicia’s card is declined at a wine shop and her cousin Devon Forten pays with his Black Amex. Devon invites her to dinner at his new Fort Greene brownstone, where he lives with his wife Marla.
At the dinner table, Devon’s friend Matteo Jones argues with him about real estate and the Barclays Center. Before Alicia leaves, Matteo kisses her in the bathroom.
Instead of taking her usual weekend bus to Syracuse, Alicia stays in the city. Marla drags her to a Dumbo loft party hosted by the artist Felix, where Nino carves an ice sculpture with a chainsaw.
Back in Fort Greene at dawn, Alicia notices La Garza watching her from a fire escape across the street. Days later, a handwritten invitation appears on her door.
At La Garza’s converted garage studio on Clermont Avenue, the party spans multiple floors with a string quartet, nuns as waitstaff, and a rooftop DJ. La Garza announces that her company is preparing an initial public offering.
Matteo later tells Alicia that La Garza once sold custom suits to Wall Street men and had a secret affair with Devon, who cut her off to attend business school. La Garza then buys Alicia a yellow sundress at Bergdorf Goodman and asks her to arrange a meeting with Devon.
Devon arrives for what he believes is a fitting. La Garza dresses him in an ice-blue jacket embroidered with a song code from their past and serves him pernil and scotch.
She pitches him on leading her IPO. After he leaves, Devon breaks down against his truck and tells Alicia to keep the meeting secret from Marla.
By summer, Alicia ends her engagement with James and begins a relationship with Matteo. Devon and La Garza rekindle their affair, dining at Blue Ribbon and touring the Dean Street properties he bought for luxury condos.
La Garza’s stock begins trading on NASDAQ and climbs. Flashbacks reveal that her early backer, Augusts Jankovskis, was tied to illegal schemes, and that her sister died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
A Page Six blind item appears about La Garza and a “hip-hop financier.” Marla confronts her at a rooftop pool party, and La Garza talks her way out of suspicion.
In August, the group travels to the Hamptons for La Garza’s pop-up shop. Felix displays a portrait of Devon holding La Garza in his lap. Jankovskis, furious at being displaced, hurls slurs at her, and news breaks that Omar and an associate were arrested for insider trading.
Devon’s parents arrive without warning, and Marla retaliates against Felix by having him evicted and his work discarded. At a formal brunch on the porch, La Garza confronts Devon’s mother about turning her away years earlier.
La Garza asks Devon to stand and leave with her. His father intervenes: “Son… there are responsibilities, and then there are dalliances. You have responsibilities. Sit down.”
Devon sits back down. La Garza walks away alone. She later realizes she is being followed by a mob associate and hitches a ride back to Brooklyn.
On Sunday morning, Alicia finds La Garza drinking tequila at her kitchen table, pouring out her life story. Overwhelmed, Alicia goes to the Soul Summit dance party in Fort Greene Park, dances in the heat, and faints.
She wakes with a wave of panic and runs to La Garza’s studio. The door is unlocked, and she finds La Garza dead in the bathtub.
The autopsy shows La Garza was strangled before being placed in the water. Police never solve the killing or connect it to the financial ring, and the studio is destroyed in an arson fire soon after.
A large memorial is held at Piro’s Funeral Home. La Garza’s brother Soto, on leave from Afghanistan, places her monthly letters inside her casket.
Devon refuses to attend and warns Alicia never to contact him again. He and Marla sell the brownstone and leave Brooklyn. Marla reveals she is pregnant.
Matteo invites Alicia to Hawaii with him and his ill mother. She declines, choosing to build an independent life rather than define herself through a partner.
In November 2008, Alicia runs into Matteo at Madiba on the night of Obama’s election victory. They share a brief, warm moment in the celebrating crowd.
By 2010, Alicia attends the closing night of Freddy’s before its demolition. Hungover, she walks past Devon’s finished luxury condo building on Dean Street.
Grieving La Garza and the neighborhood being erased, Alicia picks up a brick from a construction site, throws it through the condo’s glass window, and runs home into the breaking dawn.
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Summary by Chapter
Spoilers ahead. The book contains 11 numbered chapters, labeled “One” through “Eleven.”
Chapter 1
In 2010, Alicia reflects on the summer of 2007 while attending the final night of Freddy’s bar. She postpones her engagement to James and moves into a Fort Greene sublet with Lorraine, meeting Marcus, Leti, Aaron, and Chuck. That night she sees La Garza win a shopping cart race down Lafayette Avenue.
The group argues about the arena development threatening Marcus’s apartment, and Alicia commits to her new life in the neighborhood.
Chapter 2
In spring 2007, Devon Forten covers Alicia’s declined card at a wine shop and invites her to dinner at his brownstone.
There she meets his wife Marla and his friend Matteo Jones, and the table debates gentrification and the Obama–Clinton primary. Matteo kisses Alicia in the bathroom before she leaves. Walking home, she weighs Devon’s restlessness against her own stalled engagement.
Chapter 3
Alicia skips her weekend bus to Syracuse and visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead. Marla calls her to a Dumbo housewarming at Felix’s raw, un-renovated loft, where artists, editors, and models mingle. Alicia learns Devon pays Felix to keep Marla occupied during his trips. Returning at dawn, she spots La Garza watching her from a fire escape.
Chapter 4
A handwritten invitation from La Garza arrives at Alicia’s door. The party features a string quartet, nuns as waitstaff, a rooftop DJ, and a mixed crowd of neighbors and celebrities.
Matteo tells Alicia that La Garza once sold suits to Wall Street men and was abandoned by Devon years before. La Garza announces her company’s planned IPO, and Matteo later warns Alicia that La Garza never acts without purpose.
Chapter 5
La Garza invites Alicia to brunch, and Alicia calls in sick to work. She meets Matteo for dinner and drinks before his DJ set, and they make out. Alicia tells Lorraine she needs to end things with James.
La Garza then takes her to Manhattan in a town car, dresses her in a yellow sundress, inspects a Bergdorf Goodman retail space, and explains her philosophy of “showing her seams.” Over champagne, she asks Alicia to connect her with Devon — just as Marla and Felix walk in.
Chapter 6
La Garza arrives with bagels and persuades Alicia to arrange a private suiting consultation with Devon. Devon comes to the studio believing it is a routine fitting, and La Garza dresses him in an ice-blue jacket embroidered with a coded song title. Over pernil and scotch, she pitches him on leading the IPO.
Devon leaves in tears, still in love with her, and tells Alicia to keep the meeting from Marla.
Chapter 7
Alicia ends her engagement with James and begins an affair with Matteo. Devon and La Garza openly rekindle their relationship, dining out and touring his Dean Street properties.
Her stock begins trading on NASDAQ and rises, bringing national press. Flashbacks reveal her sister’s death on 9/11 and her rescue by the stockbroker Augusts Jankovskis. A tabloid blind item prompts Marla to confront La Garza, who deflects her suspicions.
Chapter 8
Alicia returns her engagement ring at the birth of James’s niece and cuts ties with his family. In Sag Harbor, Felix displays a portrait of Devon holding La Garza in his lap. Jankovskis insults La Garza for replacing him, and news breaks that Omar was arrested for insider trading in East Hampton.
Devon’s parents arrive, Marla has Felix evicted, and at a formal brunch La Garza confronts Devon’s mother. When she asks Devon to leave with her, his father orders him to sit down, and he obeys.
Chapter 9
After realizing a mob associate is following her, La Garza hitches a ride back to Brooklyn. She spends Sunday morning drinking tequila and telling Alicia her full life story, including her lasting love for Devon.
Alicia goes to the Soul Summit dance party, dances until she faints, then wakes in a panic and runs to the studio. She finds La Garza dead in the bathtub as police and neighbors arrive.
Chapter 10
The autopsy shows La Garza was strangled, but police never solve the case or link it to the financial ring, and the studio burns in an arson fire. A large memorial at Piro’s Funeral Home draws neighbors, creatives, and Soto, who places her letters in her casket.
Devon skips the service, warns Alicia away, and leaves Brooklyn with Marla, who is pregnant. Alicia declines Matteo’s invitation to Hawaii.
Chapter 11
On the night of Obama’s 2008 victory, Alicia briefly encounters Matteo at Madiba. Over the following years her friend group scatters while she builds a career as a copywriter and filmmaker.
In 2010, after the closing night of Freddy’s, she walks past Devon’s completed luxury condo on Dean Street. She throws a brick through its window and runs home into the dawn.
What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Gentrification and Displacement | Rent-stabilized tenants are evicted, Freddy’s closes, and the Barclays Center development reshapes the borough. Long-time residents are replaced by transplants and financiers, and Devon builds condos on Dean Street where working-class homes stood. |
| Identity and Belonging | Alicia moves between her Puerto Rican mother’s world in Gravesend and her wealthy father’s Forten family. La Garza keeps production in Brooklyn and calls it “showing her seams” rather than hiding her Farragut Houses origins. |
| Power, Legitimacy, and Capital | La Garza pursues a NASDAQ listing, Devon wants creative cachet, and Jankovskis runs pump-and-dump schemes. The IPO, the SEC investigation, and the insider trading arrests tie the affair to financial crime. |
| Female Autonomy vs. Domestic Confinement | Alicia breaks her engagement rather than become a doctor’s wife, Marla performs the role of socialite spouse, and La Garza refuses to let men direct her business or her life. |
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Quotes from Last Night in Brooklyn
“El mono sabe en qué palo trepa.”
“Monkeys might know trees, but what happens when you take them out of the forest completely?”
“I like to show seams in my garments because it’s a sign of quality. And staying in Brooklyn, keeping the whole operation in Brooklyn, even as we grow? That’s my way of showing my seams.”
“Men blindly open doors for men because they’re good at pickup basketball or were in the same frat. And they open doors for women when they feel intrigued by the glimmer of possibility on the other side.”
“Son, there are responsibilities, and then there are dalliances. You have responsibilities. Sit down.”
“Young Hearts. Run Free. Never be hung up, hung up like my man and me.”
Books Like Last Night in Brooklyn
- Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez: Also set in gentrifying Brooklyn, following a Puerto Rican family navigating politics, social mobility, and ambition.
- Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez: Examines art world elitism, class, and female legacy across two timelines in New York.
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett: A multi-generational story about class, identity, passing, and secret pasts, told through women choosing different paths.
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid: A contemporary novel about race, privilege, and transactional relationships in a modern urban setting.
- Luster by Raven Leilani: A candid first-person narrative about a young Black woman navigating art, class, and intimacy in New York.
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Contemporary Literary Fiction / Urban Drama / Coming-of-Age
- Core Narrative Tropes: Dual Lives and Secret Identity, Destructive Past Flame, Gentrification and Class Clash, Mythic Local Icon, the High Cost of the American Dream
- Tone & Atmosphere: Lyrical, candid, gritty, vibrant, nostalgic, bittersweet
- Primary Conflict: Alicia’s choice between self-determination and family expectation, set against the conflict between authentic Brooklyn culture and corporate real estate
- Pacing Style: Chronological, memory-driven narration framed by the 2010 closing of Freddy’s, with a steady build toward the IPO, the affair, and the death
- Book Structure: 11 numbered chapters, preceded by a table of contents and epigraphs, followed by acknowledgments and author notes
- ISBN-10: 1250372038
- ISBN-13: 978-1250372031
- Pages: 256
- Publisher: Flatiron Books
