The Love She Left Behind: A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A bitingly comic exploration of an unforgettably dysfunctional family, from a writer who wields great "comic rhythm" (The New Yorker). This ferociously funny family saga journeys into the mysteries of many kinds of love.
England, 1983. A celebrated love story entertains the nation: Patrick, the sexy young playwright, scourge of an enthralled establishment, marries Sara, who has abandoned her two children to fulfill her destiny as Patrick’s beautiful, devoted muse. Thirty-five years later, Sara’s death leaves Patrick alone in their crumbling house in Cornwall, with his whisky, his writer’s block and his undimmed rage against the world. The children Sara left behind, Louise and Nigel, are now adults—with memories, questions and agendas of their own. What was their mother really like? Why did she leave them? What has she left them? And how can Patrick carry on without the love of his life?
As versions of the past collide with realities in the present, Sara’s heirs do battle over ownership of this much beloved woman. But the closer Louise and Nigel get to the true story of Sara’s great love affair, the greater its mystery. Secrets and lies, scenes and letters: how do any of us piece together the people who made us what we are?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With dry English wit and stark prose, Coe depicts nuanced, damaged characters in the midst of a no-win situation. As a young woman, Sara left her husband and two children for Patrick Conway, a playwright on the cusp of fame. Patrick saw the children, Louise and Nigel, largely as nuisances and distractions, and as a result, they remained semi-estranged from their mother until adulthood. Thirty-five years later, after Sara's sudden death, Louise and Nigel convene on the Conways' run-down Cornwall estate to settle her affairs, and their relationship with Patrick is as strained as ever. As all three navigate their grief, Nigel and Louise uncover curious details that suggest Sara and Patrick's relationship was more complicated than they initially imagined and the more they learn about the affair that tore their family apart, the more confusing the situation becomes. Further complicating matters is Mia, an attractive young student purportedly writing a master's thesis on Patrick, but whose actual motives seem murkier once she moves into the house and begins to take a more-than-journalistic interest in him. While the plot takes its time unfolding, readers will enjoy the journey toward acquiring real sympathy for a cast of characters who are, generally speaking, not particularly likable on first glance.
