A piercing and witty portrait of a true maverick It has been twenty years since Ava Langdon published her much-lauded novel The Apple Pickers. Now, she leads a reclusive life in the Blue Mountains, with two rats and her typewriter as her companions. She dresses in men's clothes and carries a machete in her belt; she speaks French to the townspeople, paying no heed to their confusion. Above all else, however, she is still a fearless writer, inspired to seek beauty and perfection, and - despite her isolated existence - to imagine the inner lives of other people. Poetic, poignant, and at times bitingly funny, The Last Days of Ava Langdon takes us into the mind of an utterly singular character, who at once revels in her individuality and yet is also trapped by it.