Their house used to be a decent hotel but stripped bare by the Germans there's little left of the glorious rooms where both Sophie and Hélène spent their wedding nights. Sophie LeFèvre lives with her brother Aurélien, sister Hélène, and her sister's children in their former hotel La Coq, while her husband and brother-in-law are somewhere at the front but haven't been heard of for months. Part one of the novel is set mostly in the occupied French village St Péronne at the height of the first World War. However, any doubts I had were washed away mere minutes after picking up the novel as the story within was so gripping that I could barely manage to put it down at all. I'm not generally a fan of historical literature, particularly one with a war setting, so I was slightly reluctant at the start of this novel. The Girl You Left Behind has a dual time-frame narrative the first part is seen through the eyes of a woman in occupied France in 1916, the second through one living in modern day London. This is an astonishing novel which beautifully connects present and past in a tale of war and love. In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened. Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time. My edition: Paperback, to be published on 27 September 2012 by Penguin Books, 516 pages.ĭescription: In 1916 French artist Edouard LeFèvre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front.
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