The Girl You Left Behind / Jojo Moyes / 384 pages / Historical Fiction

This book is all about a painting during wartime World War I, but don’t let that put you off.   The setting of two different time periods is well presented and it is very clear in which era you are. In fact when it turned to the 21st century and then went back to 1917, it was almost as if you were in a time machine, revisiting the familiar story you had left behind. The author created a dilemma for me over what the main 21st century character did regarding the painting, did I agree?, didn’t I?, it changed with each page.  A fabulous story that I will remember for a long time to come.  

The writing in this book is exquisite. I don’t use this word lightly, I dislike wordy, over descriptive writing, where the writing distracts from the story. Not so with this book, this writing is at its best with excellent use of the English language such as “cacophonous daylight”. The characters are very well drawn and realistic, you find yourself caring about what happens to them. I found myself being absorbed by the book, turning pages eager to discover what was going to happen next. Thinking about the characters even when I wasn’t reading the book. It is a book with twists and turns, a few surprises, one so shocking I actually cried out (luckily I was at home at the time!).