From the New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You, a spellbinding love story of two women separated by a century but united in their determination to fight for what they love most

France, 1916: Artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his young wife, Sophie, to fight at the front. When their small town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Edouard's portrait of Sophie draws the eye of the new Kommandant. As the officer's dangerous obsession deepens, Sophie will risk everything - her family, her reputation, and her life - to see her husband again.

Almost a century later, Sophie's portrait is given to Liv Halston by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. A chance encounter reveals the painting's true worth, and a battle begins for who its legitimate owner is - putting Liv's belief in what is right to the ultimate test.

Like Sarah Blake's The Postmistress and Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key, The Girl You Left Behind is a breathtaking story of love, loss, and sacrifice told with Moyes's signature ability to capture our hearts.

Listening Length

13 hours and 29 minutes
Author

Jojo Moyes
Narrator

Clare Corbett, see all
Audible release date

August 20, 2013
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B00EKKXURG
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	13 hours and 29 minutes
Author	Jojo Moyes
Narrator	Clare Corbett, Penny Rawlins
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	August 20, 2013
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00EKKXURG
Best Sellers Rank	#6,464 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #56 in Historical Romance (Audible Books & Originals) #340 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #362 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

30,650 global ratings

5 star		62%
4 star		27%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Denise L Hightower

Another gem from Jojo

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2023

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Jojo Moyes is a gifted storyteller. Her tales weave emotion and draw strong characters. Her dialogue always rings true. I always finish her books ready for her next.

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Amazon Customer

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 24, 2023

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I love novels that weave a beautiful story and teach me about the past and give me an appreciation of the suffering endured and the humanity that can shine through it and give us hope. This book did so wonderfully. It gives much to ponder and think about. I highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

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Maryellen

A literary work of art...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 6, 2013

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Did you ever get a gift that started out in a big box and you just kept opening smaller boxes within until you finally got to the real gift? This is what THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND makes me imagine. There are stories wrapped up like gifts between the covers of this book.

The Germans have taken over the small town of St. Pèrrone in France. It is 1917. World War I. Sophie Lefèvre's beloved husband, Édouard, an artist who studied at the Academie Matisse, has been drawn to the front lines of battle. Before Édouard left, he painted a very seductive portrait of his Sophie. Forced to cook for the German soldiers in her family's hotel Le Cog Rouge, where that painting hangs, Sophie and her portrait gain the attention of Kommandant Hencken. Upon hearing that Édouard is in extreme peril, Sophie risks all to save him.

"15 January 1917

Today they took Sophie Lefèvre. Such a sight you never saw. She was minding her own business down in the cellars of Le Cog Rouge when two Germans came across the square and dragged her up the steps and hauled her out, as if she were a criminal."

It is 2006 and Olivia "Liv" Halston has been mourning the death of her husband, David, for four years. Before his death, David gifted Liv with a painting entitled "The Girl You Left Behind". While visiting Spain, David and Liv gave aid to a woman who was being forced to dispose of all of her Mother's property. This painting was to be discarded. Instead David bought the painting for Liv.

Paul McCafferty, recently divorced, works for a successful company that helps to return precious property to their rightful owners. The family of Éduourd Lefèvre, whose paintings have grown exponentially in their value in the last nearly 100 years, want their painting back~~that portrait of Sophie~~the very one that hangs on the bedroom wall at Liv Halston's home. Liv has grown so attached to that painting that she will fight with all she has, and that is very little, to keep it.

Don't stop now. There's another package to open. I love this part.

Louanne Baker is an American journalist sent to the concentration camp in Dachau in 1945 to write a story about the people held there. While there, Ms. Baker is sent instead to a storage facility that houses the stolen and looted works of art that unrightfully fell into the hands of the Nazis. Somehow, when she leaves, that very same portrait of Sophie, has gone with her.

This one painting has touched so many lives. It has ruined some. It has completed some. To whom does this painting rightfully belong?

When the stories above intertwine throughout time, the result is an amazing tale that will leave you reeling. I am simply amazed at the author's ability to see the bits and pieces of this story in her mind's eye and have it come together. Just like a painter seeing the vision of his painting and coating the layers of paint upon the canvas, Ms. Moyes has layered her stories to create a literary work of art. Brilliant. ✰✰✰✰✰

22 people found this helpful

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Larry Hoffer

Jojo Moyes proves again how compelling and satisfying her books are...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 28, 2013

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I had never heard of Jojo Moyes before I read her last book, Me Before You, earlier this year. As I mentioned in my review of that book, it kicked my a-- emotionally, and it will definitely be included on my list of the best books I read in 2013.

Needless to say, following that book definitely raised my expectations about her latest, The Girl You Left Behind. And while this book may not have left me an emotional wreck, it, too, was tremendously satisfying, compelling, and overall, a terrific read.

During World War I, Sophie Lefevre is left alone with her sister, her niece and nephew, and her teenage brother when her artist husband, Edouard, goes off to fight. When their French town is taken over by German soldiers, Sophie and her family find their small hotel becomes the place the soldiers eat their dinner each night. While this move creates a great deal of work for Sophie and her sister, Helene, it also gives them a chance to get supplies and other comforts that have been stripped from them since the occupation began, and this causes some resentment and suspicion among their neighbors.

Sophie also catches the attention of the new Kommandant, who appears to be a man conflicted about his role in the war. The Kommandant is also drawn to a painting of Sophie that her husband did shortly after they met. Risking her life and the lives and well-being of her family, as well as her reputation, Sophie decides to leverage the Kommandant's interest to help reunite her with her husband. But the consequences of this request have far-reaching implications.

Fast forward nearly 100 years. The painting of Sophie was given to Liv Halston as a gift from her architect husband, and it remains one of her most treasured possessions after his unexpected death. When a random series of events calls the painting's provenance into question, Liv is forced into fighting to hold onto this keepsake, even as an unpleasant truth is uncovered, and even though the risks of her fighting cost her financially and emotionally.

This is a powerful book about courage, fighting for what you believe in no matter what happens around you and no matter what the consequences, and the power of love. It also is an interesting exploration about the way art and other valuables were seized during the first and second World Wars, which I'd always heard about but never really thought much about.

What I love so much about the way Moyes writes is that she creates complex characters that are more than meets the eye. She's not afraid to give them flaws, to make them slightly unlikeable. She draws you into the plot immediately, and you find yourself hooked, because you need to know how the plot will be resolved. The Girl You Left Behind proves that the appeal and the success of Me Before You wasn't just a fluke, and now I'll need to go back and read some of her earlier novels.

Simply put, Jojo Moyes is an author to add to your reading list if you haven't already, and then you'll find that at least her two most recent books are utterly worth reading.

3 people found this helpful

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Carolyn Trumbo

great read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 18, 2023

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I loved this book. I highly recommend it. I thought I had the story figured out but was pleasantly surprised with the ending.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Book Worm

5 stars, from someone who rarely gives 5 stars. Superb!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 22, 2018

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I'm finding some of the 1 star comments bizarre - commenting on the postal service, torn pages etc, with at least two who haven't grasped the concept of the star ratings, and given 1 star for what they deem to be brilliant! So unfair. Actually, I rarely give 5 star reviews, because while some books are very good, there is slways something that prevents them from being brilliant. In this case, despite a couple of tiny Inconsistencies, I can't give anything but give stars. The story itself was very moving, and beautifully crafted. The writing itself was superb, with good characterisation and the two eras skilfully woven together. The first part really drew me in, but I must confess to a heart-sinking moment in part 2, when I had the most awful feeling that a promising beginning had evolved into chic-lit. However, don't be put off, because the links between the two times are soon forged together inextricably. I loved this story, loved the ending, and have found myself deep in thought on a few occasions about the characters and these lesser-known events of WWI.

58 people found this helpful

Mandrek Larl

It's not run-of-the mill chick lit, it works for guys too ....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 15, 2017

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So contemporary romance is not supposed to be a guy's thing, but as a break from cops vs bad guys thrillers I would recommend this great book set concurrently in 1917 occupied northern France and present day London. It's not run-of-the mill chick lit; the book revolves around the courtroom battle for ownership of a painting whose provenance between 1917 and the time it was acquired at the end of WW2 is unknown. As both parties dig into the painting's past, the heroine tries to maintain her life and her late husband's legacy, and the adversaries fall for each other across the court room. A great book, thoroughly enjoyed cover-to-cover, with of course a happy outcome.

24 people found this helpful

JaquiP

I love Jojo Moyes. I think she is a gifted writer. Another great book from her.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2018

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For me, this didn't read like a book by JoJo Moyes. I wouldn't have been surprised if someone had told it was written by a completely different author - Kate Atkinson maybe - Because it felt more literary in style than other books of hers I have read. It is - of course - beautifully written and she can certainly tell a multi layered story which succeeds on many levels. The voice of her two main characters - Liv in the present day and Sophie in her small French town in first world war France - both have clear voices and characters that come through well. The voice of Sophie in St Peronne in le Coq Rouge run by generations of The Bessette family, the suspicions rife at the time and the war time tensions, are described beautifully and are reminiscent of Suite Francaise.

The characters of Liliane and the Kommandent, of Sophie and Paul and Liv as well as minor characters are drawn so well, they are totally believable. It's a massive undertaking juggling two worlds, doing justice to history and world war one as well as a modern court case about restitution, and here and there the pace slows a bit but I am impressed how well she holds the reins of all the strands of the story, weaves it all together and comes, at the end of the court case to an interesting outcome. There aren't many writers that could have done it so well. It's a lovely, well written book that held my interest most of the way through. Love her books. Maybe this one, if I had any criticism of it, is perhaps that it's a tad too long. Every time I thought we d got to the end, there was another tangent and then another. It could have ended several times but, like Liv's determination to hang on to the painting no matter what, ( something I wasn't entirely comfortable with or fully understood), it was as if the writer was reluctant to let her characters go A book to linger in the memory though.

13 people found this helpful

Sophie

Loved this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 1, 2022

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I was introduced to Jojo Moyes books after watching the film 'Me Before You'. I loved the character deph in the film and recognising that films are often not as good as the books went onto read the book immediately (in this case I think the film did a good job of portraying the characters!).

The girl you left behind is the second of Jojo's books I have read and so different to the first that I kept forgetting who the author was. From the first chapter and description of the occupation and 'pig baby' I was hooked. I downloaded the kindle app on my phone and read this on cable cars in the Swiss mountains inbetween treks it was that hard to put down.

Although there were aspects of the story I found a little farfetched. Jojo's writting was so descriptive and characters so rich that i struggled to put it down. The 2 story lines worked well together, however I found myself trying to speed up to get to Sophie's sections as I found these to be more engaging. I have now been converted to Jojo's books!

One person found this helpful

Lynne Hallett

A wonderfully absorbing story which straddles two centuries.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 7, 2019

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I love reading novels by Jojo Moyes. Having read the Me Before you trilogy, this was slightly different in style, but equally absorbing. I really liked how a painting is at the heart of the story and how parallels can be drawn between the two main female protagonists. It was credible, heart wrenching at times and I loved the plot twist at the end, how things turn out quite differently from how both the characters and the reader expect. If you like historical romance (set in WW1) and contemporary romance, then you have the best of both worlds here. An excellent read!

8 people found this helpful

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