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Today, "What she left behind" by Ellen Marie Wiseman published on March 9, 2022 by Éditions Faubourg-Marigny.
Audrey Escoin, contributor to the 20 Minutes
Books reading group
, recommends
What she left behind
by Ellen Marie Wiseman, published on March 9, 2022 by Éditions Faubourg-Marigny.
His favorite quote:
“Clara's first winter in Willard was the longest winter of her life.
»
Why this book?
Because it is a very captivating novel, with a narration in two voices
and two times.
There is Clara, in 1929, a cheerful but above all free young woman.
She is in love with Bruno, and she intends to make her parents accept her relationship.
But the harshness of his father suggests that nothing will be easy.
And there's Izzie, in 1990, tossed about in various foster homes after the tragedy that rocked her family.
When she was only 7 years old, her mother shot her father.
She finally seems more peaceful with new parents.
Because the same place will unite the two women, a public asylum
: Willard.
Clara will be interned there in spite of herself, while Izzie many years later will find the business of the first.
Izzie will do everything to understand Clara's story.
A kind of echo to his own experience.
Because we are really gripped by the scenes of daily life in Willard
.
A disturbing and touching reality.
To imagine how people were treated in these establishments, much of the 20th century, is sad.
There is a lot of authenticity in the story.
In a softer way, we also follow the misadventures of Izzie's adolescence, with the confrontation between comrades and first emotions.
There is really a common point between Clara and Izzie, it is their strength of character and their courage.
Both fight and know what they want.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
1929. Clara Cartwright is caught between her authoritarian parents and her love for a young Italian immigrant.
Furious that she rejected an arranged marriage, her father sends her to a chic residence for "nervous patients", but with the crisis, the young woman is transferred to a public asylum...
Characters.
Clara, and her lover Bruno.
Clara's parents.
The other patients in the asylum.
Izzie, her mother, and her new foster family.
His new high school classmates.
Places.
Willard's Asylum.
Izzie's high school.
The time.
From 1929 until the mid-1990s.
The author.
Ellen Marie Wiseman is the author of several novels, sold in nearly twenty languages, and New York Times bestsellers.
Her first novel translated into French,
La vie qu'on m'a chose
was published in 2021.
This book was read with
passion.
“I found the alternation of temporality very fluid and everything is linked together for our greatest pleasure as readers.
After reading, I discover that this establishment is real and closed its doors in 1995 and that the Willard Asylum Valises project largely inspired the author.
»
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