St. Péronne, where the Bessette family had run Le Coq Rouge for generations, had been among the first towns to fall to the Germans in the autumn of 1914. Hélène and I, our parents long dead and our husbands at the Front, had determined to keep the hotel going. We were not alone in taking on men’s work: The shops, the local farms, the school were almost entirely run by women aided by old men and boys. By 1915 there were barely any men left in the town. Désolée,” I said, but I had known this full well. Some mischievous part of me had wished to reduce him, if only briefly, to the status of support corps. stars. I loved so many things about this book, especially the historical story of Sophie and her Edouard. Their legacy was worth at least 4 and a half stars. Unfortunately, I felt the modern day story of Liv and Paul to have floundered on for such a lengthy amount of time that it almost took the focus away from the girl in the painting (who was in my opinion the star of the book and the reason for why everything was set in motion), and I could only give their portion of the story 2 stars at best. In 2006, four years after her husband has died, Liv Halston is attempting to get by on her own. The painting “The Girl You Left Behind” is given to Liv as a gift before her husband’s death. Liv begins a relationship with Paul McCafferty, who later learns that his company has tasked him with hunting down the very same painting owned by Liv, for it is claimed to be stolen during World War I, shortly after Sophie’s arrest. This ruptures their relationship. Liv refuses to give up the painting, and eventually, Paul quits his own side and through an investigation, learns that the painting was given as a gift to the Kommandant in the first place. It is also learned that Sophie was actually reunited with her husband, and lived out a happy life with him in Switzerland. Your assistant has done sterling work, madame,” he boomed. I glanced sideways at her, watching as she tried to reconcile this man’s rather scruffy exterior with the command of language that usually came with extreme wealth. “You should promote her. She has an eye!”

Sophie is an artist's wife living in occupied France. On the wall of her hotel hangs a portrait of her, painted by her husband. It's daring and sexy in a way Sophie struggles to see herself and it catches the eye of the Kommandant who craves Sophie. When she discovers that her husband has been taken prisoner and likely to die, she gives up a part of herself to the Kommandant to save her husband's life.Dos historias que nos hablan de amor (tanto en pareja, como en familia, etc.) de superación personal, supervivencia y de pasión por la vida, de como hay veces que nos dejamos que alguna parte de nosotros muera pero tenemos seguir adelante y superarnos. Proof of how wrong we had been had come accompanied by the sound of gunfire on a still, cold, autumn morning, when Madame Fougère and Madame Dérin had set out for their daily 6:45 A.M. stroll to the boulangerie and were shot dead as they crossed the square. This was the story of our lives: minor insurrections; tiny victories; a brief chance to ridicule our oppressors; little floating vessels of hope amid a great sea of uncertainty, deprivation, and fear.

I could taste that cheese. I was going to have a mouthful of Reblochon, smear it on a hunk of that warm bread, then pop a grape into my mouth. I could already taste the intense sweetness, smell the rich aroma. Pah. There is no guarantee that the Boche won’t be marching down the Champs-Élysées before long. And besides, I could not leave Hélène alone here.” This book owes a great deal to Helen McPhail’s excellent book The Long Silence: Civilian Life Under the German Occupation of Northern France, 1914–1918, about a largely unrecorded (at least in this country) corner of First World War history. This is a novel with many tangents, little streams flowing off the main body of water in the way of so many tributaries. It’s a bit like reading a family tree and learning how every one of the main family members fared in life. The secondary characters are all believable and marvelously well-drawn. Here I think immediately of the commandant, but also of Sophie’s siblings, her heroic sister, her doubting Thomas of a younger brother and one fellow resident of Peronne in particular. Love stories like this do not come along very often. The horror of war was not left out, but what shone through was the determination of loved ones to find each other again.She looked at him, and then at the counter where the coins lay. “Keep them,” she said. And, with a furious glance at us, she snatched up the bread, and swept out of the shop. When Live meets the charming Paul McCafferty she, for the first time since David's passing, finally feels she may have a chance at a romantic relationship again. That is, until she finds out that he works for a company that specialises in recovering stolen art and that a painting bought for her by David, 'The Girl You Left Behind', is currently being pursued by descendants of Edouard LeFèvre.

Not too bad, thank you.” His youngest daughter had been born with a palsy; she failed to thrive, could eat only certain foods, and at eleven was frequently ill. Keeping her well was a preoccupation of our little town. If there was milk or any dried vegetable to be had, a little spare usually found its way to the mayor’s house. It helped that another one of this author’s books, Me Before You, is one of my all-time favorites and I’ve been meaning to try more of her books for a while so that was a huge part of why I decided to try this one. Actually, this book would make a great Book Club read if anyone’s looking for something like that — there are so many possible interesting discussion topics within the story. Greenya, John. Rev. of The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes. Washington Times. Washington Times, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.Thank you to all at Curtis Brown, most especially my agent, Sheila Crowley, but also including Jonny Geller, Katie McGowan, Jess Cooper, Tally Garner, Sam Greenwood, Sven Van Damme, Alice Lutyens, Sophie Harris, and Rebecca Ritchie.