My rating: 4.5 stars

First book by Patti Callahan Henry and will not be my last! This is my favorite read from March because I don't think anything else will top it. This story weaves family, legacy, heartache, history, and romance together into a beautiful picture and a story I will not soon forget. Patti Callahan Henry's prose is so immersive, I felt like in each of the locations she described: relaxed South Carolina, busy London, and the calming Lake District of England.

The story starts off on the night Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham disappears. She is the main protagonist's mother and former child prodigy writer. The story quickly splits off with two POVs, one set in America the other in England in the 1950s. After discovering a satchel with a secret note and stack of papers, Charles Jameson calls Clara and asks her to make a journey to England to retrieve these papers from her lost mother. This story follows Clara, her daughter Wynnie, and Charles as they battle to leave London during The Great Smog and make their way to the Lake District for safety.

I found this story compelling because not only does it pull from a lot of historical pieces from the 1950s, it focuses on important literary components from the time too, including Beatrix Potter, T.S. Eliot, and the Caldecott Medal. The Story She Left Behind is also loosely based on the real life mystery of the disappearance of the author Barbara Kenob.

My favorite piece I took away from the story was Clara's journey to forgiveness of her mother and understanding herself. She heals a part of her childhood during this story and learns to love herself. Although there is the romantic relationship between Clara and Charles, it is not the main focus. There is also the mysterious disappearance of Bronwyn, but again, this story is so much more than these pieces. I reflected on how I deal with loss and heartache in my past and how I can become a better person in the future for myself and my children.

"Forgiveness is a whisper of possibility, of openness. It is an act of restoration, an active healing, and active empathy."

I'd highly recommend this book if you are looking for a historical fiction with a bit of romance, familial ties, and a mystery element!

Thank you to Atria Books and the author for an ARC and physical copy of the published book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is another beautiful story by Patti Callahan Henry. Her masterful use of language transports the reader right into the story. In this book, we go from South Carolina to London during the Great Smog of 1952 to the Lake District. This is about the relationships between mothers and daughters, finding the right place and people to live your best life and the importance of family. Loved it! Beautiful cover too.

Bronwyn Newcastle is a child prodigy, whose book The Middle Earth is published in 1909, when she is only 12 years old. Bronwyn feels things deeply in her soul, so much so that she makes up her own language to describe things and feelings when the English language can’t describe it well enough. She writes a second book in her special language, but stores it away. As she matures, she eventually falls in love and marries, and has a daughter named Clara, In 1927 when Clara is 8, there is a house fire, and her mother disappears in the middle of the night, taking with her the dictionary of her made-up language. Clara doesn’t understand why her mother left and blames herself, feeling she isn’t enough to hold her mother there.

Years later in 1952, when Clara is living at her the home of her father with her 8 year-old daughter Wynnie, she receives a phone call from a man in London, who says he has her mother’s satchel. He came across it while cleaning out his father’s things, and has never seen it before. Clara feels she must travel to London to find answers to why her mother left. As Clara searches for the truth, she comes to realize what lengths someone will go to to protect those you love. Told in Patti’s beautiful lyrical prose, you don’t want to miss this book! Out now, and I think this is my favorite of hers yet!

Patti Callahan Henry writes another beautifully penned story- poignant, reflective, emotional. The mystery weaves together with historical events (the London smog attack) to create such a satisfying read. In the author's notes, she shares that she takes the real life event of this author who disappeared and created her own version of what happened. So creatively imagined, this book would be given the stamp of approval by the characters she created. Wonderfully done!
Thanks to #NetGalley and #Atria books for the ARC.

This author has never disappointed me. Her books always take me away from the crazy things going on. To an adventure that I keep close to my heart. This book was exceptional. The prose was beautiful and the fact that it is about a girl searching for her mother who was an author... Well that just makes it that much better.

When Clara Harrington receives a strange phone call from a man in London, England she begins to think about the what ifs in her life. The what if her mother had not left. What if her mother is alive somewhere. Or what if she finds out things that she may not want to know. What if she finds out it was her fault her mother left twenty-five years ago. What will she do if she goes to England and finds this man only to have her heart broken....again. Clara has her own daughter now to think about. Her daughter Wynnie is her whole world. And she is the same age Clara was when her mother left.

If there is a chance that her mother is alive somewhere though she wants to know. She wants to find her and find out why she left. Why she abandoned her and her father. So she decides to go to England. Meet Charlie and get what he has to give her. What she doesn't know is this trip will change her life in a huge way. Her's and her daughters. She is divorced from Wynnie's dad and given up on love. But could she find love again? Could it be in a whole other country? And will she find answers to her many questions?

Clara's daughter Wynnie is a very inquisitive child. She's very smart for an eight year old. She has tons of questions about everything. Including her grandmother who she's never met. She has an invisible friend who she swears came to her way before her mother read her the book that her grandmother wrote. She knows things about England. About them finding people there. Finding a life there. Things that to her are meant to be. She is a very bright little girl.

Charlie is only doing what he thinks is right when he calls Clara. He has no idea what lays in store after her and her daughter arrive. How his life and his mother's life will be changed. They are still grieving the loss of his dad. But they have answers that even they didn't know about.

This book is just beautiful. It grabbed me right from the first page. The way this author writes keeps your imagination peaked all the way through. She always writes books that are just filled with magical prose and uplifting endings. This is her best book yet.

Thank you #NetGalley, #AtriaBooks, for this ARC.

This book is beautifully written with quite evocative locations described. The idea of a separate language is magical.
However , I just couldn’t get into the storyline as I felt too many “coincidences” were tying things together.

This book may become my favorite of Patti's books. I didn't want to stop reading. When Bronwyn disappears in 1927, her daughter, Clara will spend the next 25 years wondering what happened. Across the ocean in England, Charlie will find some papers in his late father's study that might lead to the truth about her mother and a possible new life.

A historical, literary mystery about mothers and daughters, set partly in the Lake District of England, home to Beatrix Potter? What else can a librarian ask for? I listened to this one, read by the amazing Julia Whelan and excellent Theo Solomon, and the narration really brought the story to life. I love that this is based on a true story and features so many real characters and events. Highly recommend as a perfect spring read!

Wow! This was a deeply enjoyable and emotional story spanning generations! I was drawn to the characters in this dual timeline story. The story takes you on a journey from South Caroline to the Lake District in England. The story is inspired by true events and the way Patti Callahan Henry wove her story around this was magical...I am experiencing a serious book hang over today!

If you love historical fiction, women's literature and family drama this needs to be put to the top of your TBR!
I had the opportunity to enjoy the eBook and then the audio version. The dual narration was perfectly executed and added another layer of enjoyment to the story. I highly recommend both!

Thank you Net Galley, Patti Callahan Henry and Atria Books for the opportunity to preview this novel. The opinions shared are my own.
The novel, eBook and audiobook are now available.

I have read several of Patti Callahan Henry's books and have always found her style of writing to be so charming. Her love for fairytales and woodland creatures are well woven into her books, and I find it very nostalgic for adults such as myself who loved Beatrix Potter, C.S. Lewis, and fairytales as children.

This book is a well penned historical fiction novel with a dollop of magical realism. The story is centered on Bronwyn, Clara, and Wynnie. Bronwyn is a child prodigy whose talent for the written word is noticed early on. She writes a bestseller book at a very young age, and her parents continue to push her to write a sequel. After her parents realize that her imaginations are far more than make-believe, they institutionalize her for a bit to "fix" her issues, leaving Bronwyn in a state of constant panic of being locked away. After the birth of her daughter, a tragedy occurs that causes Bronwyn to abandon her spouse and child along with a mystery of a sequel written in an untranslated language only known by Bronwyn. Her daughter, Clara, searches for her mother for her entire life and is contacted by an Englishman 25 years later about a mysterious stack of documents found in the library of his recently deceased father's home. When Clara believes that the documents are left by her mother, she ships off to England along with her daughter Wynnie to uncover the mystery of her mother's disappearance.

I loved the whimsy in this book that reminded me of my childhood, but there were heavy topics discussed surrounding child abandonment. This book had a strong premise and moved quicker than I expected. At its core the book was about a mother's love, the sacrifices we make as mothers, and forgiveness. There is romance in the story, but it is not the focus. The beauty of the Lake district along with the imagery presented in this book was engaging. I enjoyed the tie with Beatrix Potter.

A few critiques:

The historical event about the London fog was briefly touched on and easily forgotten. In reality, the event was a major disaster that caused thousands to lose their lives. I know this was not the focus of the story, but it was much more significant than a few days of bad air for asthmatics.

Clara's childhood trauma from her abandonment was wrapped up too nicely. Her mother left her with life-long damage, and she was expected to easily forgive and forget in such a short amount of time. The longing, the constant searching, and the grief of not knowing what happened were elements that were present in The Secret Book of Flor Lea that I wished would have been present in this book. I believe the emotional pull was lightly touched on in a few scenes but could have been stronger if the author had delved deeper into Clara's trauma and equally Bronwyn's trauma.

Bronwyn and Wynnie's insight into other-worldly things bordered demonic divination. This is not something as casual as make-believe but was touted as such. I had my qualms with this aspect and do not like to read books on the demonic. It's not a subject that I take lightly as a Christian. This was my main reason for not rating it five stars because it clashed against my core values. There was a point where it could have gone down a darker path and thankfully did not. I understand magical realism but Emjie and her influence was much more than childhood imagination.

Aside from the two criticisms, the book was a wonderful read. If you are a fan of Tolkien, secret languages, or Patti Callahan Henry's other books, you will enjoy this book.

Content warnings: mild language, closed-door romance, child abandonment, grief, brief mention of suicide, imagination that skirts a fine line into divination.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This review is voluntary, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I simply love all the books I've read by Patti Callahan Henry and this one was no different. She is my new go to author for historical fiction. If you love a heartwarming stories and historical fiction then please check out this author as well as her other books.

I loved Patti Callahan Henry's prior book the Secret Book of Flora Lea a couple years ago and was thrilled to see new one being released. This time around, the story focuses on the disappearance of an author and young mother who had published a book at the age of 12 using an invented language. Now, 25 years later in 1952, the woman's daughter Clara receives a startling phone call from someone in London who has found a sheaf of papers and a sealed envelope addressed specifically to her.

This was such an interesting story because it's based on a real-life author who also mysteriously disappeared in 1939 never to be seen again after publishing a book and creating a new language at the age of 12. Through multiple POVs the story unfolds slowly and surely. We learn about the Great Smog of London in 1952 which killed thousands and forces Clara and her young asthmatic daughter out of London to the Lake District, not far from the home of the late famed author and illustrator Beatrix Potter.

I thoroughly enjoyed Clara and her daughter Wynnie and their story of self-discovery. The story is compelling, filled with beautiful prose and delightfully warm-hearted characters. I loved the mother and daughter themes as well as those of forgiveness, creativity, and found family.

Admittedly, there were parts in the middle that seemed to drag or were a bit irrelevant to the overall story. But the characters and the writing saved the day. Highly recommend this for fans of unique literary mystery and historical fiction.

This absolutely enchanting book made me feel all the feels. I was swept away by Henry's gorgeous prose and captivating story. The vivid descriptions of scenery made me feel as though I was really there.

Clara, a renowned children's book illustrator, goes through life wondering if her missing mother is alive or dead; hoping, but not knowing. Her mother, Bronwyn, went missing at sea off the South Carolina shore when Clara was just eight years old. Inexplicably, some papers of her mother’s show up in England twenty-five years later, and she and her young daughter go on an adventure to retrieve them, and hopefully get some answers about the mysterious Bronwyn. In their travels, they meet all kinds of interesting characters, and narrowly escape peril from the Great Smog of 1952.

Forgiveness is a main theme in this poignant, yet uplifting, story.

I highly recommend this book! The mystery is compelling, the characters are endearing, and the sense of atmosphere is tangible.

Thank you to Atria Books for providing a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy through #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Family, love, heartache, forgiveness and healing are just a few of the emotions on display in The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry. When Clara’s mother disappears when she is eight, life as she knew it ended. The joyful times with her mother are gone but strongly remembered. Her mother, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, a famous writer, disappears after a tragic fire taking with her the sequel to her world-famous book and the special language she used in her book. Twenty-five years later a phone call from a gentleman in England sends Clara together with her daughter on a journey to discover the truth about what happened to her mother. Based partly on a true story, this novel is beautifully written with great character development and descriptive prose, especially of the Lake District. This is a family sage, a romance and a mystery rolled into one. The Story She Left Behind should not be missed. Read it.

I was so excited to get The Story She Left Behind as an ARC. I was even more excited to get access to the Julia Whelan narrated audio. I listened to as much as possible until I just had to know what happened. This is the story of a child prodigy author who disappears and leaves her daughter and husband behind. 25 years later, a phone call from England leads Clara (the daughter) on a journey to obtain her mother's lost papers and hopefully answers. What she finds is more than she ever imagined in all ways.

I loved how I kind of knew what would happen but also not at all. I love that it brought together pieces of real history that I could google but also was so light that I was in the story and not the history. I love a story with people and problems and solutions and heart and this was all the things.

I really enjoyed The Story She Left Behind, set in the early 20th Century. Clara Harrington's mother left their family when Clara was a young child after Clara accidentally started a fire in their house. Clara and her daughter, Wynnie, have moved back into her childhood home with her father after divorcing Wynnie's dad. Clara's mother, Bronwyn, wrote a children's book when Bronwyn was 12 years old, so many people were interested in what happened to her after she disappeared. Clara gets a phone call from Charlie Jameson, in London, who tells her he found her mother's papers which contain a language that her mother made up and wrote a sequel to the best selling children's book in, in his recently deceased father's library. Clara decides that Charlie is not a con artist and clings to the possibility of translating her mother's book and publishing it because Clara's ex husband had a gambling problem and gambled away any royalties she had from her mother's first book. Clara & Wynnie set out for London to get the pages and in the back of Clara's mind is the possibility that she can find her long lost mother. The story is told from Clara & Charlie's perspectives, and raises many questions about how women were treated in the 20th Century. Thank you to #NetGalley and #Atria books for an advanced ebook to review.

Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham was a child prodigy and a famous children's book author. She only ever wrote a single book, and a sequel has always been anticipated. But in 1927, 25 years ago Bronwyn went missing, never to be found or heard from again. She left behind the untranslatable manuscript of her next novel, her 8 year-old daughter Clara and her husband. She was assumed dead. Then out of nowhere she gets a call from a man named Charlie in England who claims to have a letter from her mother intended for her and a stack of words and definitions that went missing with her mother. She decides to take a chance and travel to London to get answers and maybe finally learn when happened to her mother 25 years ago.

This book felt so whimsical and magical. I had no idea about the very real author this mystery was inspired by, but I do think this was a very smart topic to base a book on. The atmosphere of this book was truly top tier. The author did such a wonderful job describing every setting in this book, and I truly felt like I was in the story. The other elements were also well done, the mystery, the character relationships, the pacing. oVer all it was a very enjoyable read, and a push to read more of this authors work.

This book was a lovely little escape. Exactly what I come to expect from this author. Great setting, fantastic details and a heartwarming story. It was a tad slow, and i had a hard time wanting to pick it up - but that was probably a mood issue and not that much to do with the book. Like I said, exactly what this author always provides!

As soon as I read the last word in this heartwarming tale, I hugged the book, sad that it was complete. Patti Callahan Henry draws you in from the start.
According to the author’s note, this book was inspired by a true literary mystery of another author, Barbara Newhall Follett.
This book is a tale of a lost mother, the book she wrote with an invented language and a daughters lifetime search for both. Author Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham wrote a book when she was just twelve years old. She invented her own language when she was at a loss to find the best words to use in her book about an imaginary character, Ejmie.
When Clara, the authors daughter, is eight years old, her mother Bronwyn, abandons her and her father. They don’t know whether she is alive or dead. She left in the family boat which was later found deserted. Many years later, Clara, an artist for children’s books, receives a phone call from a man in London. Upon his father’s death, he has discovered a leather satchel with instructions to give it to Clara. Unsure of its authenticity, she decides to book passage on a ship with her young daughter Wynnie. Upon her arrival, she meets Charlie Jameson, who may hold the secret of her mother disappearance. Unfortunately, the great smog of London, cuts their trip short and they head to the country. What happens there is why you need to read this book.
The author writes with such rich prose, her descriptions of places, events, scenery, put you right there with Clara and Wynnie. Such beautiful passages and descriptions kept me longing for more. There is a mystery involved throughout and some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.
This story is told from the perspectives of Clara and Charlie. While the chapters are short, I was quickly turning the pages for more. This book involves family ties, love, loss, abandonment, mental illness, searching for answers and forgiveness. The characters are so likeable, delightful and warm.
After reading this novel, I will definitely read more by this author. If you love historical fiction with rich language, then this book will be for you.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Published on March 18, 2025

The Story We Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry is a beautifully written and deeply moving tale of love, loss, and the enduring power of second chances. With her signature lyrical prose, Henry crafts a dual-timeline narrative that seamlessly weaves together past and present, pulling readers into the lives of characters whose heartbreak and hope feel achingly real. The emotional depth of the story, combined with its richly drawn Southern setting, makes it impossible to put down.

What truly makes this novel shine is Henry’s ability to capture the complexity of human emotions—the regret of roads not taken, the bittersweet beauty of memories, and the healing that comes with forgiveness. The characters are flawed yet deeply relatable, making their journeys all the more poignant. This is a poignant, heart-tugging read that lingers long after the final page—a must for fans of emotional, character-driven fiction.