Patti Callahan Henry
Fiction 2025 | 352 pages
Another novel by Patti Callahan Henry with a book as a main character! I am not certain if I enjoyed The Story She Left Behind more or less than The Secret Book of Flora Lea. (See my earlier book review). But Henry has a least one more novel of her 34 published books with a book in a central character role, The Bookshop at Water's End, and it is on its way to me.
Context: In The Story She Left Behind, we learn about Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, who was a child prodigy. She writes a highly successful book, The Middle Place, at eight years old, and it is published when she is 12. We pick up her story years later when a family crisis causes her to abandon her daughter Clara and her husband Timothy when Clara is an impressionable 8-year-old. And then we move forward another 25 years, to Clara's adulthood.
Fast forward. Clara is living with her own 8-year old daughter Winnie, in South Carolina. (Yes, the author does seem a bit obsessed with eight-year-old girls). She receives a phone call from Charlie, a man in England, unknown to her, who tells her he has found a satchel among his recently deceased father's belongings. The worn satchel includes a sealed letter to Clara Harrington along with many pages relating to Bronwyn's sequel. Somehow, this man has vital information about the second book, that her mother penned after The Middle Place. The sequel is written in an invented language, which is absolutely intriguing and inspired me to create an invented word!
Clara and Winnie board a steamer for London (the year is 1952) and our story unfolds as we discover how these families in South Carolina and England, who never heard of each other, are inextricably intertwined. All of this raises hope in Clara that her mother is still alive.
The story is delightful and filled with intrigue, visual acuity, love, loss, mystery, the power of story, the role of make-believe, and romance. Interesting twists and occurrences happen, such as the Great Smog in London, which threatens Winnie's health and their safety. And their discovery that The Middle Place has been turned into a play.
I highly recommend The Story She Left Behind. It is an easy and delightful page turner.
May 2025