I devoured this book! Her best work yet, in my opinion. Mystery, love, motherhood, forgiveness, daughters, and more, it’s all there! Think I’ll try creating some words to express some of my deepest feelings!

The Story She Left Behind is a historical fiction novel with strong themes of family abandonment, forgiveness, and love. I would also classify this under women’s fiction since the primary relationship is mother/daughter, with subplots of mystery and romance. This was the second book of Patti Callahan Henry’s that I have read. I read a physical copy, not the audiobook. The story is primary told from the first person POV of the main character, Clara, but there are also other character POV chapters intermixed. Main character Clara is a divorced mom of an 8 year old daughter, living in 1950s South Carolina. Abandoned by her own mother when she was 8, Clara has been on a near constant hunt to find out why and to where her mother left 25 years ago. Through a chain of events, Clara and her daughter end up in England and meet Charlie, who holds some of the information about Clara’s mom. But, more questions are raised and they begin hunting the answers together. Clara wonders if she will ever find her mom, and if she does, could she forgive her? Also, Clara wonders if she can truly trust Charlie after having her trust broken before? My favorite parts in the book were the historically based parts about the London smog, the lost author, the majestic Lake District of England, the language and word study, and the side information about Beatrix Potter. I had a harder time connecting the characters in this story because I haven’t personally dealt with abandonment of a family member. However, I appreciate that the author wrote this book. It was a somber ackowledgment of the importance of mental health understanding and resources. Overall, the book was well-written and plotted, and the characters were well-developed. It got a little slow for me in the middle and felt repetitive toward the end. I think it would have been less meandering if 50-100 pages were edited out. Content: Scant light language. Parental abandonment. Kisses only, with implied but not described intimacy.

Beautiful multi-layered story. Well written, stunning settings, and heartfelt characters. It explores loss, families, and being different. I highly recommend this book. Possibly her best yet!

This is the best book that I have read this year. This author writes wonderful stories with history and depth, and this book is no exception.

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry is a captivating and heartbreaking novel about an illustrator in Bluffton, South Carolina whose mother disappeared 25 years ago when she was 8 years old. She has been living again with her Dad who raised her since she lost her home when her ex-husband gambled it away. It’s 1952. Clara Harrington, who is now a divorced art teacher with her own 8-year-old daughter, Winnie, and has just received the Caldecott Award for her illustrations of a hedgehog in a children’s book, receives a phone call from a man named Charlie Jameson in London, England, who says he has found her mother’s briefcase. Inside is a sealed letter to her and a note that she must retrieve it in person. She agonizes over the decision because she’s not sure it’s really her mother’s briefcase but the description matches a photo she finds. Clara finally purchases tickets on an ocean liner for herself and her daughter to go to England to retrieve the briefcase which contains pages of her mother’s lost invented language. It would help her write the sequel to her mother’s book which the world has been waiting for. But Clara has to be careful and pack Winnie’s medicine because Winnie has asthma. And that turns out to be a problem because London turns out to have a worse than usual fog/smog problem and the air is tinged green and thicker than pea soup. Winnie has one asthma attack and Charlie helps by calling his doctor who suggests getting her away from the smog. Charlie suggests driving them to the Lake District and with no other choice they go. It’s definitely difficult but they make it out of London getting lost on back roads. They pick up a hitchhiker who promises to give them directions and does but when she leaves the car she steals Clara’s briefcase and purse with her passport and return ship ticket and wallet. Clara and Charlie run after her and she drops the briefcase but gets away with the purse. The briefcase falls in the river and all the papers fall out. Charlie and Clara try to save them and Clara almost drowns. He saves her and gives her dry clothes from his suitcase. She falls asleep and they drive the rest of the way. When they arrive, a doctor is there because Charlie has called ahead and the doctor examines Clara and Winnie and prescribes rest for both and everyone goes to bed. A few days later Clara and Winnie feel better and Charlie tells Clara to borrow his sister-in-law Adelaide’s clothes. Then Adelaide and his brother Archie come from London and bring Clara and Winnie’s suitcases. Archie thinks Charlie is besotted with Clara. Meanwhile Clara gets to know Charlie’s mother Pippa and Clara and Charlie try to figure out why her mother’s briefcase was in his late father’s library. The plot continues to thicken when she discovers the author of the hedgehog book she illustrated lives there in the winter and a play based on her mother’s book is put on in the local theater every winter and they go to see it. Clara begins to have feelings for Charlie. Is her mother still alive? Will Clara find her? Will Clara and Charlie find love? This incredible and beautifully written story has elements of real life dramas in it and it’s a novel you will definitely enjoy.