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What She Left Behind: A Haunting and Heartbreaking Story of 1920s Historical Fiction
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Paperback
$16.95
Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past. Young flapper and suffragette Clara Cartwright is caught between her overbearing parents and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, instead finding love with an Italian Immigrant, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash of 1929, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum. Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results. "Screams with authenticity, depth, and understanding."
--The New York Journal of Books
"A real page turner...will appeal to all readers of fiction."
--The Historical Novels Review
"Amazing...A great read!"
--The San Francisco Book Review
"Will both haunt and inspire you... a moving, and at times chilling story that totally endears you to her characters."
--SpaWeek
"A great coming-of-age story."
--School Library Journal
Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past. Young flapper and suffragette Clara Cartwright is caught between her overbearing parents and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, instead finding love with an Italian Immigrant, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash of 1929, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum. Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results. "Screams with authenticity, depth, and understanding."
--The New York Journal of Books
"A real page turner...will appeal to all readers of fiction."
--The Historical Novels Review
"Amazing...A great read!"
--The San Francisco Book Review
"Will both haunt and inspire you... a moving, and at times chilling story that totally endears you to her characters."
--SpaWeek
"A great coming-of-age story."
--School Library Journal
Paperback
$16.95