“I was so happy. I was so safe,” laments Lois Farquar to a suitor late in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September. But from the book’s start, as she and her fellow Anglo-Irish gentry enjoy parties and dances, their Irish neighbors are fighting for independence from Britain, while they entertain British soldiers sent to suppress the rebellion. Unable to commit politically or romantically, Lois and her family lose much. Bowen’s novel joins the US public domain in 3 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown