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What She Left Behind

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What She Left Behind

Written by: Ellen Marie Wiseman
Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
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About this listen

Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now 17, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloguing 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.

Clara Cartwright, 18 years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, 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.

©2014 Ellen Marie Wiseman (P)2014 Tantor Coming of Age Genre Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Heartfelt Tearjerking Psychological Suspense
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Loved the novel! Well written with characters who were well rounded. Great story. Highly recommend. Not historical fiction, though.

Engaging!

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The story is interesting, the horror of the patients treatment in the institutions were probably well researched, but the whole story and the characters are too simplistic and the end was predictable(in my opinion). The performance is really good and it made the story much more interesting.

Interesting, but ...

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Great story that kept me interested from the very beginning! The end was not what I expected but it was a perfect ending.

Fascinating novel

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I couldn't put this title down. I listen while cleaning, washing dishes, working on the computer, taking a bath, I was looking for other things to do just so I could keep listening. And then wanted to hear it a second time... Yes it was predictable but still a great story

Addicted

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So well written I actually became enraged on the main characters behalf!
I definitely recommend!!!

A compelling stoty

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