When I read the back of The Girl You Left Behind talking about a story brought together by history and war I knew I must read it. I was captivated by the idea that was given, I tried to imagine how in the end Liv, our widowed debt-ridden Londoner, and Sophie, a young french wife under German control, would be brought together with a time gap that made it evident it could not be in person. Moyes was able to do this with simply a painting. She took the a controversial topic of "Should the belongings that were stolen by the German's and now in the possession of unknowing owner's, be given back to the family of the original owners?" and she was able to show what one simple painting had seen for almost an entire century. The journey of reading this book beings with Sophie, then Liv, then a steady back and forth until it all gets tied together and the story behind the painting of The Girl You Left Behind is told 90 years later.
The whole premise of The Girl You Left Behind follows oddly enough the painting titled The Girl You Left Behind a painting of Sophie Léfèvre done by her husband Édouard Léfèvre. The story starts with Sophie, we are informed of her current situation, she is in charge of her late father's hotel, in a town which German's have been occupying, she, as the eldest, must take care of her two siblings and her sisters children who are all starving. Yet, Sophie is one of the lucky ones, because her restaurant is a gathering place for the townspeople and the German Kommandant soldiers notice, she soon becomes their chef at night, which means her family unlike others gets food, but that is not how she sees it. In the beginning, she thinks to herself "So this was it," I thought. "We were to spend the rest of the war cooking for Germans" (Moyes 34). As a reader at this point I felt incredible sadness not only is she in a horrible position she is doing this without her husband, who is away at war. Sophie goes into great detail about how she met the grand Édouard Léfèvre, and that her hope at that point is that he is okay and alive, she would do anything for him. It truly shows a deep love, almost too deep. The relationship between the Kommandant and Sophie becomes strange she beings to see him as a human rather than a "filthy German". He seems to be infatuated with The Girl You Left Behind and the difference he sees between the healthy woman in the portrait and the pale starving girl in front of him, Sophie notices this and knows that he is a powerful man. I feared greatly what would happen next, I could only assume the worst would occur between these two and hoped she would not play into his infatuation. Yet, she does and a deal is made. In exchange for The Girl You Left Behind the Kommandant is to send Sophie away to her husband. The night comes and I was on edge, I knew, and Sophie knew, that the Kommandant wanted more than simply the painting. Sophie does whatever she has to in order to see her husband again even if it means she must betray him. Hélène, Sophie sister best describes how I felt at this moment "Oh, Sophie," I heard her murmur, as I drifted to sleep. And I think knew even then what I had brought upon us all. "What have you done?" (Moyes 114). I assumed no good could come from this. Moyes ends the beginning of the novel with Sophie being torn away, not only from her sister, and brother but from a small child who has become attached to her since her mother was taken by the Germans, this child's name is Édith. Sophie is The Girl You Left Behind without her what happens next with Liv would not be possible.
The second portion is agonizing, at first, it seems rather bland, all I wish to know is what happened to Sophie, but Liv has something about her, like Sophie that captured my attention. Liv is rather bitter, out of work, and widowed for 4 years she has yet been able to move on until she meets Paul. Moyes meticulously planned out each detail in order for her to be able to throw a twist at the reader at the last minute. Essentially Liv opens up to Paul, finally, she is happy until he visits her home. You see, part of the twist is that Paul is an apart of a company that traces "...missing works of art and oversee their restoration to their original owners." (Moyes 200). And he is currently searching for The Girl You Left Behind and he so happens to find it in the house of the woman he is dating. An extensive media prone trial occurs and Sophie's history is uncovered. The public believes the Kommandant took it. But Liv fights, she knows Sophie's living relatives only want it for money but, Liv has a connection to it especially now that she is finding out more about the girl who has been smiling at her for the past decade. It is hard to grasp sometimes that objects can tell us stories, a camera, a painting materialistic things, but someone else, somewhere else might have had that object and done incredible things while in possession of it, I would want to learn more so did she, and so did Paul. The trial is in full swing, and Paul finds the owner of the painting after the Kommandant supposedly took it. The owner was a reporter after the war who kept painstakingly detailed journals. Paul knows that he will lose his job but he finds something in these journals; as a reader I am rooting for Liv, as Sophie would have. Not only did Paul find that the reporter was given The Girl You Left Behind by the Kommandant's wife, he finds that the Kommandant did not take it and Sophie never, in fact, left it with him. It was Édith, the young girl who gave it to the Kommandant. This is where I began to feel like this story was worth the read I would not have been okay with an unhappy ending for Sophie. Édith enters the court with Paul, who has saved the day for Liv, she tell us what truly happened to Sophie and Édouard. After weeks of illness for Sophie, trauma by what she saw, and what felt like thousands of miles on a train she arrived at a camp, where a man she barely recognizes to be her husband is brought out "Édouard?"... I stood frozen still afraid this was some terrible trick...I sank toward the ground. And as I did, I felt his arms close around me." (Moyes 368) and at that moment, she knows the Kommandant kept his promise. They are reunited, pardoned and sent to Switzerland. Édith tells the court that Hélène would receive strange letters at times, and twisting everything together Moyes tells us that the young girl gave the Kommandant The Girl You Left Behind and it was never taken by any German, due to this fact Liv wins the trial, her and Paul find a way to be together. Édith, in a letter to Liv, writes this about the woman who took care of her after her mother was taken "I am an old woman now, so it may not happen in my lifetime, but I believe that one day a whole series of paintings will emerge unknown to provenance, beautiful and strange, their colors unexpected and rich. They will feature a red-haired woman in the shade of a palm tree, or perhaps gazing out into a yellow sun, her face a little older, that hair perhaps streaked with gray, but her smile wide and her eyes full of love" (Moyes 369) I hope that too for Sophie. I believe this novel is outstanding on the grounds of the emotional ride in which you encounter and the way in which Moyes shows us just how far people will go for love, whether that be betraying yourself to the enemy or losing your job in a trial to do what is right.
Questions:
- Do you agree that the original owner's family should receive the belongings?
- Would Édouard forgive Sophie?
- Do you think that Hélène should have told Sophie's brother?
- How do you think Édith felt when her past came back to her at such a old age and she was able to see The Girl You Left Behind again?
- Would you enjoy a job that involved court cases such as this?
- Would Édouard forgive Sophie?
- Do you think that Hélène should have told Sophie's brother?
- How do you think Édith felt when her past came back to her at such a old age and she was able to see The Girl You Left Behind again?
- Would you enjoy a job that involved court cases such as this?