The Story She Left Behind
A Novel
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4.3 • 368 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Brilliant, riveting, so beautifully written, impossible to put down.” —Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Inspired by a true literary mystery, the New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.
In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, vanishes off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her disappearance leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beloved mother.
By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s disappearance, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.
“Graceful in its telling and so very wise in its insights, The Story She Left Behind is a book that will capture your heart, lift your spirits, and delight your soul” (William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were enraptured by this atmospheric historical mystery. In 1927, young Clara Harrington’s author mother, Bronwyn, disappeared. She had been a child prodigy who published a best-selling fantasy novel before she was a teenager, and her unexplained absence resulted in a lot of newspaper headlines—and in Clara’s broken heart. Twenty-five years later, an intriguing stranger from London contacts Clara, who’s now a successful children’s book illustrator with a young daughter of her own, with a startling discovery that could explain what happened to her mother and change her own life forever. Author Patti Callahan Henry (The Secret Book of Flora Lea) has created a fascinating mystery loosely based on a real literary disappearance, mixed with a ton of relatable emotion and some absolutely gorgeous descriptions. This is an absorbing, enthralling novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this captivating outing from Henry (The Secret Book of Flora Lea), a children's book illustrator searches for her mother, a renowned children's book author who disappeared decades earlier. Thirty-year-old Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham disappeared from her home on the South Carolina coast in 1927, leaving behind an unpublished sequel to the novel she wrote as a precocious 12-year-old, which made her famous. In 1952, Bronwyn's daughter, Clara, gets a mysterious call from Charles Jameson, a Londoner who's just discovered a satchel in his recently deceased father's library filled with papers belonging to Bronwyn. Among the materials is a letter stipulating the satchel must be hand-delivered to Clara. She and her asthmatic eight-year-old daughter, Wynnie, arrive in London during the Great Smog, and they accept Charlie's invitation to stay at his mother's Lake District home, where the air is clearer. Clara feels very much at home on the pastoral landscape and finds a romantic spark with Charles. Henry imbues her story with lush descriptions of the landscape and intriguing linguistic puzzles as Clara attempts to decipher Bronwyn's dictionary of the invented language that was central to her work. Readers will be riveted.
Customer Reviews
Great Read
Very good book, an easy read filled with mystery, challenges, victory, heartache, new love, and renewed bonds. Well written, I felt I could see the story unfolding before me. It was often hard to put down, wanting what came next, and it led to a wonderfully complete end. Loved it.
Good, But Not Extraordinary.
I enjoyed this book, but I found I struggled with storyline. It was tended to drag on a bit, and then Bam! the secret of the entire story was told rather subdued.
Great book
I read this in two days. Such a wonderful story.