By Lena McMillan, Family Support Development Officer
November’s book choice for our group was ‘What’s Left Behind’ by Angela T Edgar.
This book tells the story of Grace, whose mum is subjected to a horrific crime at the start of the novel. What unfolds is the impact this has on Grace and other members of the family, as they try to come to terms with the attack, negotiate the legal proceedings that follow and manage the emotions they are left wrestling.
This book was a huge hit with our group, who rated it 7.9 out of 10.
We were lucky enough to have the author, Angela, join us for our discussion. Angela took us through her journey of writing the novel, which is inspired by real events that happened in her family. Angela shared that she had always kept personal journals and she turned to these when putting this book together. The crime against her mum was real and journalling at that traumatic time was a way of coping, of sorting out her thoughts.
Angela had a sense of her mum’s voice driving her on to write the book, which she self-published, saying, ‘that book wouldn’t let me go.’
During our discussion, we talked about the relationship that grows between Grace and Julian, who she meets in Edinburgh, when visiting the city for appointments with her mum’s legal team. Julian is not part of the legal team and there is an instant connection/spark between them. Many of our group wanted to know more about how their relationship develops and what Julian’s back story is and there was a definite appetite for a sequel that would cover this.
Themes of loneliness and isolation were discussed, as was the different ways siblings can respond to the same situation and want to respond differently – this was something that resonated with many of our group.
Nature was another theme that emerged in our conversation – Grace enjoys miles of walking and feels connected with the outdoors, particularly the moon. She enjoys her own space and company at these times and needs it to help her to cope.
We also discussed what it is that leads people to do bad things, in this case, Darren the perpetrator of the crime and spoke about justice, wondering what people do with the outcome of a crime and how do they deal with any injustice.
Some quotes from our readers:
‘Very engaging – I’m eating each page. I feel I’m there and didn’t want to put it down.’
‘…engrossed in the different storylines. It pulled at my heart…so much empathy. I could have wept reading about mum in the care home.’
‘I’m really enjoying it, it’s quite engaging.’
‘I really enjoyed it – this one got me right away. The amount of description, I felt I was right there. Dad in the nursing home – so sad, I felt part of it.’
‘I felt apprehensive reading the book and didn’t give it the attention it deserves. I sensed the author’s love of language and thought the story and style married well.’