Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Girl You Left Behind

The Girl You Left Behind
reviewed on + 1440 more book reviews


Having first read the tale of Sophie Lefèvre and her husband, Eduoard, in a novella about their first days of marriage, I was happy to return to the characters in this book. It's a sad tale dedicated to love as two unlikely individuals discover each other. Their love is truly the discovery of soul mates and as their lives are turned upside down during WWII and the Nazis it continues. Separated by the chaos of war, they keep their love foremost in their hearts and minds as they endure atrocities that break many people.

Sophie finds herself living with her sister while Eduoard is in Paris. Knowledge of what is happening to the other is sparse but both believe that the other still lives somewhere somehow. The linking feature is the portrait he painted showing the "true" Sophie he adores. The haunting painting attracts much attention and eventually brings the two together again through an unlikely German officer. However, so much happens prior to this meeting as the endure torture and life in concentration camps. Read this one to unveil the entire story.