The Story She Left Behind

By Patti Callahan Henry

Book Overview

Indie Next April 2025 Pick - LibraryReads March 2025 Pick

"Brilliant, riveting, so beautifully written, impossible to put down." --Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter's search for them both.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington's magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother's lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother's vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London's most deadly natural disasters--the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson's family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry's lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668011875
• ISBN13: 9781668011874
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written story of mother-daughter relationships

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own. Patti Callahan Henry has become one of my go-to authors, and I couldn’t wait to read her latest novel. It checked many of my boxes – historical fiction, a bit of romance, a mystery, family secrets, art (both painting and writing), the British countryside, and connections to Beatrix Potter. I appreciated the way so many themes were threaded into the novel: the mother-daughter relationships, the hints of magical realism, the connections to nature, the importance of language, the passion to be creative, concepts of memories, grief, abandonment, and trust. What a beautifully written story with many sentences and paragraphs that had me marveling at the expressive and unique word choices. If you enjoy family dynamics, a literary mystery, and a sweet romance, you will want to read this story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.