What She Left Behind Author: Ellen Marie Wiseman | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DV1IUNE | Format: EPUB
What She Left Behind Description
In this stunning new novel, the acclaimed author of The Plum Tree merges the past and present into a haunting story about the nature of love and loyalty--and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.
Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past.
Clara Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum.
Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results.
Illuminating and provocative, What She Left Behind is a masterful novel about the yearning to belong--and the mysteries that can belie even the most ordinary life.
Praise For Ellen Marie Wiseman's The Plum Tree
"Ellen Marie Wiseman's provocative and realistic images of a small German village are exquisite. The Plum Tree will find good company on the shelves of those who appreciated Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian, Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, and Night, by Elie Wiesel." --NY Journal of Books
"The meticulous hand-crafted detail and emotional intensity of The Plum Tree immersed me in Germany during its darkest hours and the ordeals its citizens had to face. A must-read for WWII Fiction aficionados--and any reader who loves a transporting story." --Jenna Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us
"Wiseman eschews the genre's usual military conflicts of daily life during wartime, lending an intimate and compelling poignancy to this intriguing debut." --Publishers Weekly
"Ellen Marie Wiseman weaves a story of intrigue, terror, and love from a perspective not often seen in Holocaust novels." --Jewish Book World
"A haunting and beautiful debut novel." --Anna Jean Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August
- File Size: 1434 KB
- Print Length: 337 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0758278454
- Publisher: Kensington Books (December 31, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DV1IUNE
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #541 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > American - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Psychological - #14
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > American - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Psychological - #14
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
Another fabulous novel by Ellen Marie Wiseman! Once again, I was lucky enough to read an ARC and this is her second novel (the first is The Plum Tree- a must read if you have not already).
This book bounces between the 1930's and the 1990's with parallel story lines that have you convinced early on that you have this story all figured out. I'll save you the time and energy- you're wrong, you don't have it figured out. This story is suspenseful, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at the same time, but what it is not is predictable.
Izzy and Clara are the two central characters around which a story of mental illness, loss, love, and redemption is formed. Wiseman takes us between the 30's and the 90's seamlessly and has a gift for suspense- I was left hanging at the end of many chapters and found myself scrambling to get through to find out what happened.
Neither Izzy's nor Clara's stories are exactly what they seem, and the ending held some surprises. I loved that we got to know both characters (and some other wonderful secondary characters who shine in later chapters more than in earlier chapters- but I won't give away spoilers here!), because I feel that made the ending that much more rewarding.
A wonderful sophomore effort - I can't wait until it arrives on my Kindle on December 31 so I can read it all over again! Please check this one out- you won't be disappointed.
By Courtney
I was excited to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of Ellen Wiseman's second novel, What She Left Behind (publication December 31st ). I thoroughly enjoyed Ellen's debut novel The Plum Tree, and I knew the setting for her second book was the Finger Lakes region of New York state, where I live. I am happy to report that What She Left Behind is a book that I could not stop reading! I enjoyed the book's structure of dual story lines that coalesce: this style of storytelling has the potential to be difficult to follow, however Wiseman pays close attention to continuity and relationship between the two main characters of Izzy and Clara. These are strong, complex women who are forced to confront many of the same issues, even though their lives occur in different time periods. Several themes play out in each character's story: the idea of a normal life and being denied it, doing what you're told, the strength and love that should exist in a family, and betrayal by a parent. At times, it is a sad story, but more than that it is a real story with believable characters who inform in a deeply emotional way. Its a great book to snuggle up with for a weekend on the couch!
By Barbara
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