What She Left Behind: A Haunting and Heartbreaking Story of 1920s Historical Fiction

What She Left Behind, the first book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector, masterfully blends compelling tales from the past and now to examine the resilience of women in two distinct eras as they confront hardship in two very different ways. Explore the terrifying confines of a 1920s New York institution as a wrongfully incarcerated lady battles for her most prized possessions. Two generations later, meet the young woman facing the suffering and enigma surrounding the mental illness in her own family.

Izzy Stone's father was shot and killed by her mother ten years ago as he slept. Izzy, who is now seventeen, is horrified by her mother's apparent craziness and won't go see her behind bars. Izzy's new foster parents, who work at the nearby museum, have asked for her assistance in documenting the belongings of a state asylum that has been closed for a long time. There, among mounds of forgotten possessions, Izzy finds a decades-old notebook, a stack of unread letters, and a glimpse into her own history.

Clara Cartwright, a young suffragette and flapper, is torn between wanting to be a contemporary lady and her controlling parents. Clara's father sends her to a refined home for anxious invalids when she rejects a planned marriage and falls in love with an Italian immigrant. However, after losing his money in the 1929 stock market collapse, he is unable to pay for her treatment, and Clara is admitted to the public institution.

Izzy finds herself drawn back into the past by Clara's narrative even as she navigates the difficulties of yet another fresh start. Could Clara's mother's violent behavior have been caused by anything else if she had never been really mentally ill? Izzy is forced to reevaluate her own decisions in order to piece together Clara's destiny, with startling and unexpected outcomes.