The Girl You Left Behind Book Review
“Sometimes..it is possible to fall into a parallel universe.” - JoJo Moyes
What would you do to hold on the person you love in most in the world? Would you betray your vows, your country, your sense of right and wrong?
When Sophie Lefevre’s humble family inn becomes the center of the German occupation of her small town in Northern France during World War I, Sophie finds befriending the Herr Kommandant essential to her survival. His obsession with a painting, mastered by her beloved Edouard, hanging in the inn gives Sophie the currency she needs to free her husband from a German work camp. The Kommandant’s obvious favor fuels rumors of betrayal that quickly swirl through the village. Sophie is arrested from her home leaving nothing but her tarnished reputation and her shattered family behind.
In a house made of glass in modern day Londan, Liv Halston lives with nothing but haunting memories. When her late husband, David, architect and minimalist, died suddenly, Liv holds on to the one thing she cherishes - a mysterious painting bought on her honeymoon in Spain.
Four years after his death, Liv is trying to move on. When she stumbles into the path of Paul, the savvy ex-pat with a skill for finding lost things, Liv must decide what’s more important - the life left behind by David or a possible future with Paul?
Her beloved painting becomes an international symbol of oppression and healing when it’s rightful ownership is called into question by Paul’s requisition firm. Believed to be stolen by the Germans from the home of the artist in World War I, Paul fights to bring the work back to the descendants of Edouard and Sophie Lefevre. Liv, desperate to hold on to The Girl You Left Behind, dives into a search for the truth. What she discovers will change the way she looks at The Girl forever.
Two women, left behind, fight to hold on, to the past and the future, in this stunning novel by JoJo Moyes. Don’t start this page-turner on a weeknight. You’ll want to stay up all night. Check it out here*!
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