12 Books Like The Story She Left Behind

Set in Nova Scotia and Maine, where the berries are picked by Indians, as they’re still called, this is amoving story, alternating chapters between Joe, the son of the berry-picking family, and Norma, his sister Ruthie, who was kidnapped by a child-hungry town woman and raised as her own. Suspense, sensory details, and so much emotion—guilt, loss, anger, and love—easily expressed by the Indian family and not at all, by Norma’s adoptive family—that influence course of the characters’ lives. I learned a lot about a historical era I knew nothing about.

This book spoke to me.

A group of women who seemingly had it all discover that there is more to life than the imposed dream of home, family, and a well-appointed kitchen. I really enjoyed the premise that a book club can become a place where one doesn’t just offer polite reviews of the text but a space for the exploration of ideas.

These women were on the periphery of social upheaval and could have very easily submerged themselves into suburban obscurity. But a book awakens them, shakes them up, spurs them on, and ultimately shows them the way to voice a more genuine version of themselves. I love the humour, the realism, the connection, and the growing realisation that together, women can really change the world.

Multiple narratives take turns at center stage of this novel, following the primary group of characters for significant portions of their lives. These intertwined story arcs include those of a set of African American twin sisters who are inseparable - until a decision one makes without consulting the other changes things, after which they have nothing more to do with each other beyond serving as memories of what used to be. That decision is to pass as White and turn her history into a guarded secret. On a single trip from cradle to grave it may be possible to change the trajectory of one's life, but sometimes this comes at the expense of discarded pasts and the people belonging to them.

Delia Owens’s Crawdads was a smashing success as both a novel (her first) and a motion picture. ’Buked, beaten, and scorned by her feckless father, abandoned by her mother and older siblings, an illiterate girl of ten lives alone on the marshy coast of North Carolina. Befriended by a boy who teaches her to read with the compelling prose of A Sand County Almanac, Kya comes to see her world through the eyes of its author, Aldo Leopold. Kya and Tate grow up and fall in love, but he goes off to college—and she is again abandoned. She becomes a renowned naturalist, artist, and author, but falls sexual prey to a scoundrel, who winds up dead. It’s a murder mystery, but also a story of triumph and a beautiful portrayal of an environment often as reviled by polite society as its once feral celebrant.

Many an idealistic young law student like me felt that jolt in our spine early on when we saw up in the balcony of that courthouse a sleepy Scout being told, “Stand up, Jean Louise. Your father’s passin’.”

The movie is as faithful to the novel as the medium would allow. The novel is told entirely from Scout’s POV and not only focuses upon the racism of the time and place, but also upon her coming of age as a tomboy and being told to act “As a little girl should.”

The book offers more to those of us for whom the rule of law and not of men is a passion, especially in Finch’s closing: “There is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of Rockefeller, a stupid man the equal of Einstein… That institution, gentlemen, is a court.” 

This novel was an immersive journey through the English countryside, from Cornwall to the Cotswolds. I was so deep into this setting and story that I was always stunned to look up and see that I was at home in my own living room. Rosamunde Pilcher is from Scotland, and she knows this landscape so well. She takes us there with deft prose and page-turning skill. 

The story is about a woman named Penelope Keeling and her extended family. It is a novel of connections—mothers, daughters, husbands, and lovers—all revolving around a famous painting called The Shell Seekers. Through a bohemian childhood and a wartime romance, we come to love the complicated Keeling family. 

You may have watched the movie, but have you read the novel? Fannie Flagg gave us a beautiful novel about friendship, family, second chances, and good old-fashioned southern food in the form of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.

Using a mix of narrative voices, Flagg’s charming novel goes deeper than the movie, exploring the internal lives of the various interesting characters. I thought it was fascinating and compelling in equal measure.

A Francophile and a writer, I loved this insight into one of America's most famous authors life. Hemingway's first marriage, his philanderings, his insecurities, his neuroses, his dreams. What I most appreciated was learning about Paris in the 20s and this intense relationship through his wife's eyes. The entire cast of characters--Gertrude Stein and Alice, Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, Ezra Pound and others--came to life. The descriptions of the streets, the food and drunken states, the sex and challenging of boundaries and social norms, the frivality and youth were well written, rich and vivid. Most of all, the struggle to write, to have a vision, to hone the craft played a pivotal part of the story.

A contemporary romance written with lush prose and a transportive southern setting, this untraditional love story sticks in my mind. 

A wife and mother is stunned to learn that her first love is the father of her son’s new girlfriend. Their secret, unresolved past unravels as she assesses her present life and the choices she’s made. The temptation of the one that got away lurks in her mind as she navigates a precarious balance between family, obligation, and desire.  

Julia Whalen is also a renowned audiobook narrator, and I listened to this book in her melodic voice, being carried to Oxford. Julia attended Oxford for a year, and she takes us there in this beautiful story.

The story is about a young American woman named Ella Durran who has made it to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Through twists and turns, Ella must decide whether to turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with or follow her political dreams, which are coming true. Can we change our dreams? Read to find out.