The Girl You Left Behind is the 3rd novel by JoJo Moyes that I’ve read, and she’s a strong three for three (Read my reviews of The Last Letter from Your Lover and Me Without You).
The Girl You Left Behind is a painting, and a person (well — two people, but we’ll get to that later). We first meet Sophie Lefevre in 1917 France. Her husband Edouard is serving the French military in the first World War, and she has been left behind in the village of St. Peronne, which is now occupied by the Germans. Because she lives in the hotel her family ran before the war, the Germans order Sophie and her sister Helene to cook the officers dinner each night. They don’t want to, and fear what it will mean for their reputation in town, but they have no choice. And the leftovers from the food supplies help keep them and their younger brother, and Helene’s children well.
The Kommandant takes interest in the painting that hangs in the hallway of The Girl You Left Behind. Reluctantly, he and Sophie become friends, mostly over his appreciation of the painting, which Edouard, who trained under Matisse, painted of Sophie before they were married.
Flash forward almost 100 years, and we meet Olivia Halston. The painting was a wedding gift from her husband. But she too has been left behind, when he died suddenly four years before. When Olivia is sued by the Lefavre family to get it back under the Geneva convention, she looks into Sophie’s life to try to figure out what happened. Olivia feels like the painting belongs with her, like she truly understands her, and she also feels as if The Girl is the only person who understands her and doesn’t want to let her go.
The characters, the two different settings, the painting — they all come together to create a story that I loved reading.
Win it!
The giveaway is closed.
- The winner of another JoJo Moyes book Me Before You is #2, Jennifer.
- The winner of Flash Kids workbooks is #9 Liz.
Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.
Huge fan would love to read this book.
I’ve been wanting to read this author’s books since they sound so interesting and right up my alley. This one sounds great too!
You won this one, Jenna! Congrats. Please reply to this email notification with your shipping address.
Love WWI historical fiction!!
Would love to be entered in the giveaway.
I’d love to win a copy of this!
You won! Please reply to this email notification with your shipping info, and I’ll have a book sent to you.
I adored her first two books and would enjoy
reading this one also…I like how the time period
started out very early and then moves forward!
Many thanks, Cindi
Your description makes this sound like a book well worth reading. Please enter my name.
Definitely a novel that would be compelling and special.
thanks for this great book which interests me very much.
I can’t wait to read this!
I’m looking forward to reading one of JoJo’s books. I keep reading great reviews!
I can’t wait to read it!!
Looks like a good read!
This is a book I would certainly enjoy.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
Sounds like a great story. I would love to read it. Thanks for this chance.
Oooh, this sounds great!
This sounds like a great read!