The Girl You Left Behind

Product Information

Not one artist in particular. I went round the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, looking at the Impressionists on the upper floors, and I imagined Lefèvre as a mixture of many of the artists I saw. David’s sudden death left Liv financially as well as emotionally devastated. “His loss is a part of her, an awkward weight she carries around, invisible to everyone else” (p. 151). But when Liv meets Paul McCafferty during a chance encounter, she starts to feel as though life might have something in store for her yet. Paul’s work lies in the restitution of lost art and the spoils of war—and in a cruel twist, his next case is the portrait of Sophie that Liv loves most in all the world. I read across all genres. I often think I prefer modern-day fiction, but two of the best books I’ve read recently— Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel and The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber—are set several centuries ago.

Thank you to all at Curtis Brown, most especially my agent, Sheila Crowley, but also including Jonny Geller, Katie McGowan, Jess Cooper, Tally Garner, Sam Greenwood, Sven Van Damme, Alice Lutyens, Sophie Harris, and Rebecca Ritchie. I stood, wiping my hands on my apron, unsure how to react. “Herr Kommandant.” I kept my face expressionless. Monsieur Suel, Herr Kommandant, comes here at least twice a month attempting to persuade us that in the absence of our husbands we are in need of his particular brand of comfort. Because we have chosen not to avail ourselves of his supposed kindness, he repays us with rumors and a threat to our lives.”

Jojo Moyes

We are quite well.” I swallowed. I felt his eyes on me like a burn. Beside me, Hélène twisted her fingers together, reddened as they were from the unaccustomed hot water. The Girl You Left Behind is the story of Sophie Lefevre who is living in occupied France 1916, and Liv Halston who lives in modern day London 2006. These two women are connected by a painting, a portrait of Sophie painted by her husband Edouard, called "The Girl You Left Behind". This was quite a story, and I honestly think Jojo Moyes is in a class all her own for pulling it off. She did such an amazing job of intertwining their stories, I was completely absorbed in this book, especially Sophie's story. Part one of the novel is set mostly in the occupied French village St Péronne at the height of the first World War. Sophie LeFèvre lives with her brother Aurélien, sister Hélène, and her sister's children in their former hotel La Coq, while her husband and brother-in-law are somewhere at the front but haven't been heard of for months. Their house used to be a decent hotel but stripped bare by the Germans there's little left of the glorious rooms where both Sophie and Hélène spent their wedding nights. The bar downstairs is still very lively during the day, though rations are low so the gathering of people has little to do with splurging on alcoholic drinks but more with finding solace amongst one another.

JoJo Moyes’s novel "The Girl You Left Behind" consists of two stories that revolve around an eponymous painting by the French artist Edouard Lefevre. The subject of his painting is his wife Sophie. When the novel begins, it is 1916, and the Germans have occupied the town of St. Peronne, where Sophie helps her sister and brother tend to the family hotel. Her husband is off at war. The German Kommandant of the area, an educated man, becomes obsessed with the painting of Sophie. Sophie offers herself and the painting to the Kommandant in exchange for getting her husband released from a prison camp in Germany. Unexpectedly, Sophie is arrested by the Germans and is never seen or heard from again. As I walked over to him, he gestured toward the scarves. But his eyes remained on me. In fact, they stayed on me so long that I glanced behind me, concerned that Madame Bourdain, my supervisor, might have noticed. “I need you to choose me a scarf,” he said. What it teaches us, Mr. MCafferty, is there's a whole lot more to life than winning." Come on. That's not a revelation worth driving home. It helped that another one of this author’s books, Me Before You, is one of my all-time favorites and I’ve been meaning to try more of her books for a while so that was a huge part of why I decided to try this one. Actually, this book would make a great Book Club read if anyone’s looking for something like that — there are so many possible interesting discussion topics within the story.It has been decided you will provide meals for some of our officers. There is not enough room in the Bar Blanc for our incoming men to eat comfortably.” But still. “I am not sure our bar will be suitable for you, Herr Kommandant. We are stripped of comforts here.” She would not have survived this without you. You have grown into such a fine young woman. Paris was good for you.”

The story of the pig-baby had reached most of St. Péronne by lunchtime. The bar of Le Coq Rouge saw a constant stream of customers, even though we had little to offer other than chicory coffee; beer supplies were sporadic, and we had only a few ruinously expensive bottles of wine. It was astonishing how many people called just to wish us good day.Would... would it be possible to feed something to the children? It is a long time since they had any meat.”