Enigmatic Sara has abandoned her children Nigel and Louise to marry playwright Patrick Conway. The Love She Left Behind opens with the now adult Nigel and Louise traveling to Cornwall to attend their Mother's funeral after her sudden death. When Nigel and Louise stay on to sort out Sara's things they find themselves curious to find out more about the Mother they barely knew.
While this sounds as if it should be a rather depressing or disheartening book this family drama contains a lot of humour... Patrick is now a bad tempered drunk, there's an attractive female student called Mia in residence at the house and then there's the house itself, which is literally falling down, but which is also now owned by Nigel and Louise.
The characters in this book are all completely exaggerated and none of them are particularly likable but the story is well put together with an interesting ending.
We never really find out about Sara, how she felt about her children or her relationship with Patrick but are left with the impression that the life she lived with Patrick was just an ordinary one, not the great romance that she was expecting.
It's not a long book so it's an easy read and there's a lot of different things going on - all kinds of plots and schemes that make it entertaining. I particularly liked the English aspects of this book and found it to be an enjoyable read.
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