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What She Left Behind

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In What She Left Behind, Ellen Marie Wiseman intertwines two compelling stories across time. Present-day teenager Izzy Stone, grappling with her mother’s tragic and mysterious past, discovers a hidden journal from a 1920s New York asylum. Through the eyes of Clara Cartwright, a young flapper and suffragette wrongfully committed to the asylum, the novel reveals themes of love, loyalty, and injustice. As Izzy unravels Clara's fate, she confronts painful truths about her own family and the lengths one goes to protect those dearest to them.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$5200

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This evocative crime and thriller novel is suited for readers who appreciate historical fiction blended with modern-day mystery. It will especially appeal to those interested in stories about women's resilience, social issues affecting mental health, and richly drawn characters navigating personal and societal challenges.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Now repackaged and reissued for the first time since its original release in 2014, Ellen Marie Wiseman's international bestseller merges past and present, as the discovery of an abandoned journal inside a shuttered state asylum compels a young woman to piece together its original owner's fate—with shocking and unexpected results. Illuminating and provocative, What She Left Behind is a haunting story about the nature of love, loyalty, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.

Half a million copies sold!

The breakout novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector, What She Left Behind weaves together riveting stories of past and present, exploring the strength of women in two different times as they face adversity in two very different ways. Go inside the horrifying walls of a 1920s New York asylum as a wrongly imprisoned woman fights for what is most important to her—and meet the young woman confronting the pain and mystery of her own family's mental illness two generations later.

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 cataloguing 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.

Young flapper and suffragette Clara Cartwright is caught between her overbearing parents and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, instead finding love with an Italian immigrant, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash of 1929, 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.

"Screams with authenticity, depth, and understanding."
-The New York Journal of Books

"A real page turner...will appeal to all readers of fiction."
-The Historical Novels Review

"Amazing...A great read!"
-The San Francisco Book Review

"Will both haunt and inspire you... a moving, and at times chilling story that totally endears you to her characters."
-SpaWeek

"A great coming-of-age story."
-School Library Journal

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781496730039

Publisher: Kensington Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 August 2019

Country: United States

Imprint: Kensington Publishing

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 139.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 368

About the Author

Ellen Marie Wisemanis theNew York Timesbestselling author of highly acclaimed historical fiction novelsThe Orphan Collector, What She Left Behind, The Plum Tree,Coal RiverandThe Life She Was Given,which was a Great Group Reads selection of the Women's National Book Association and National Reading Group Month. Born and raised in Three Mile Bay, a tiny hamlet in Northern New York, she's a first-generation German American who discovered her love of reading and writing while attending first grade in one of the last one-room schoolhouses in New York State. Since then, her novels have been translated into eighteen languages and published worldwide. A mother of two, Ellen lives on the shores of Lake Ontario with her husband and dogs.She can be found online at-EllenMarieWiseman.com

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