The Girl You Left Behind Audiobook CD – Audiobook, Unabridged Author: Visit Amazon's Jojo Moyes Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1471216624 | Format: PDF
The Girl You Left Behind Audiobook CD – Audiobook, Unabridged Description
From Booklist
Moyes (Me before You, 2012) writes with such clarity that one can almost see the eponymous 100-year-old painting at the center of her wonderful new novel. Also crystal clear are the emotions that protagonist Liv Halston attaches to the portrait. Gifted to Liv by her late husband, David, in celebration of their wedding, The Girl You Left Behind becomes a personal icon, embodying all that was good about their brief marriage. What is less clear is the painting’s provenance and who has the right to assert ownership. Will Liv’s notion of ownership unravel when the artist’s heirs sue to reclaim what they call ill-gotten goods, seemingly misappropriated by German soldiers during WWI? Did the artist’s wife—the subject of the portrait—give or sell it? Can anyone establish a clear trail of legitimate ownership? Does emotional attachment to a work of art have cash value? Can love ever trump greed? At its heart, such questions, thrumming in the background, add depth to what is an uncommonly good love story. --Donna Chavez
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
Even as Moyes tackles the inflammatory issues around art stolen during wartime, she never loses sight of the driving engine of her narrative ... this pleasurably assured writer skilfully balances the quotidian and the comic with the broad and universal, leaving us with the tantalising possibility of a potential caper to come (Independent on Sunday ) Jojo Moyes paints a genuinely moving, beautiful picture of how love and belief will ultimately win the war, even if they can't win the battle. The Girl You Left Behind is a true work of art (Fabulous )
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- Audio CD
- Publisher: Whole Story Audio Books; Unabridged edition (December 27, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1471216624
- ISBN-13: 978-1471216626
- Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
Brief summary and review, no spoilers.
This book is narrated by two different women at different points in time. The first part of the novel takes place during WWI and tells the story of Sophie LeFevre, who owns and helps run a bar/cafe in a small town outside of Paris. The town has been taken over by Germans and the locals have all suffered from deprivation and oppression at the hands of their captors.
Sophie and her sister Helene are both concerned about their husbands who are French soldiers and possibly in a prison camp or worse. Sophie's husband is a talented and fairly well-known artist named Eduoard, and Sophie's most prized possession is the portrait he did of her shortly after they first met. She has it prominently displayed on the bar wall. When the German Kommandant sees the portrait, he becomes enthralled with it and with Sophie as well. What will happen to Sophie and her family and to their town if the Germans don't leave? And what will Sophie do in order to save her husband and see him again?
The story then moves to the present times and we meet Olivia (Liv) Halston, a woman who's been in a state of depression and grief since the death of her young husband 4 years earlier. Liv is struggling financially and emotionally but things seem to take a turn for the better when she becomes attracted to a man named Paul McCafferty. Paul works for an agency that tries to give priceless paintings stolen by the Nazi's back to their original owners, and when he spots Sophie's portrait in Liv's home, he feels he must take action.
I really enjoyed the WWI parts of this book, which pretty much make up the majority of the first half.
REVIEWED BY LAURA
I knew absolutely nothing about this book before I read it. My digital advanced reader's copy had no plot description, and I requested it simply because I have read and enjoyed one of the author's previous books, ME BEFORE YOU.
I TOTALLY recommend trying this method of reading sometime. I find that a lot of times book blurbs are WAY too descriptive, so you feel like you already know what is going to happen just from reading the summary. Also, sometimes if you read too many reviews of a book you have unrealistic expectations, and a perfectly lovely book can end up falling short. However, I regret to inform you that because you are reading this review, you will pretty much be unable to duplicate my experience of reading this book. Unless you want to stop reading this post right now. If you do, I'll simply say--READ THIS BOOK.
For those of you who want the more conventional reviewing option, here you go:
Since I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into, I was thrilled that the book starts out in France during World War I. As you may have gathered, WWI is a special interest of mine, and I thought the first part was beautifully written historical fiction. Moyes really made me feel what it would have been like to be a woman with a husband at the Front, and the difficulty of living in an occupied country. She also explores themes of what it means to be "the enemy" and the lengths people are willing to go to save someone they love.
I was also pleased because, although I started the book while in London, I was going to be traveling to France the next day. I was EXTREMELY EXCITED to be reading a book set in France WHILE IN FRANCE. I don't know why this was extremely exciting to me, but it was.
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