The Story She Left Behind

The Story She Left Behind (2025) is a historical fiction and contemporary women’s literature novel by American author Patti Callahan Henry. It tells the story of Clara Harrington’s search for her lost mother, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, from the first- and third-person points of view. Twenty-five years after Bronwyn disappears from Clara’s life, Clara learns that a British man found her mother’s missing notebook containing the secret language she invented. Clara travels to London to retrieve the notebook and search for answers regarding her mother’s fate. Her quest fuels the novel’s explorations of Artistic Creation as a Form of Self-Expression and Self-Discovery, The Impact of the Past on the Present, and The Indelible Bonds Between Mothers and Daughters. The real story of child prodigy and literary genius Barbara Newhall Follett inspired Bronwyn’s story. Henry particularly incorporates Follett’s writing proclivity and mental health experience into Bronwyn’s storyline.

Henry is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. Her works have been translated into over 20 languages. Her titles have also been Barnes and Noble Book Club Picks, Amazon Editor Picks, Goodreads Book of the Year finalists, and Book of the Month selections.

This guide refers to the 2025 Atria Books hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, suicidal ideation, mental illness, addiction, child abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, and gender discrimination.

Plot Summary

In 1927, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham disappears from her home in Bluffton, South Carolina, in the middle of the night. She recently lit her house on fire after accidentally leaving a cigarette unextinguished in an ashtray. During the fire, her eight-year-old daughter, Clara Harrington, was badly burned, and a fireman died. Because Bronwyn has been in psychiatric hospitals for her atypical way of being in the world, she fears that officials will blame her for the fire. She fears being pathologized and admitted to the hospital once more. She knows that she won’t survive another ward and fakes her death to avoid this fate. She is sad to leave Clara and her husband, Timothy Harrington, but believes that this is her only choice. She heads out on a small boat and takes only her leather satchel and papers with her.

Twenty-five years later, Clara lives in the Bluffton house where she grew up. She resides there with her daughter, Wynnie, and father, Timothy. She works as an art teacher and children’s book illustrator. Although she never found out what happened to Bronwyn, she often thinks about her. Sometimes she must push away her memories to focus on the present. Before a newspaper interview for her recent Caldecott Award, Clara reminds herself that her life choices and circumstances are unrelated to Bronwyn. However, when the interviewer asks if she became an illustrator because of Bronwyn, Clara isn’t sure. Bronwyn published a famous children’s book, The Middle Place, when she was just 12 years old, and Clara has always lived under her shadow.

One day, Clara receives a call from a British man named Charlie Jameson. Charlie explains that his father, Callum Jameson, recently died; while cleaning out Callum’s library, Charlie found a leather satchel containing papers with Clara’s name. The papers allegedly belong to Bronwyn, who included a note instructing the finder to give them to Clara in person. Clara is skeptical at first but realizes that this might be the key she needs to resolve Bronwyn’s mysterious story. She tells her father, and he supports her decision to take Wynnie to London to meet Charlie.

In London, Clara and Wynnie travel to Charlie’s home. He gives them the satchel and letter from Bronwyn. Clara and Wynnie make their way back to their rented room, but the air is thick with smog. Charlie comes to check on them and informs them that the poor air quality is due to dirty coal. The next day, they encounter one another again, and Charlie insists that they leave London. The air is so bad that they can barely see or breathe. He insists on shepherding them to his family’s summer house in Cumbria, a town in England’s Lake District.

On the way to Cumbria, the companions run into a woman who needs a ride. Charlie has gotten lost and agrees to give her a lift if she helps them with directions. Shortly after she enters the car, the woman throws herself out, taking Bronwyn’s satchel and Clara’s and Wynnie’s passports with her. Clara tries chasing after her but only recovers a few of Bronwyn’s papers.

In Cumbria, Clara tries to adjust to her new situation. She fears that she’ll never understand her mother now that she has lost her papers. The papers contained lists of words that Bronwyn had spent her life inventing. Her sequel to The Middle Place was never published because it was written in Bronwyn’s secret language, the key to which she’d taken with her when she disappeared. Clara wishes that she could decode the sequel so that she could make some money and restart her life. Now, she’s not sure what will happen.

Over the following days, Clara and Wynnie settle into life with the Jamesons in Cumbria. They revel in the beauty of the landscape, take long walks, engage in deep conversations, and work on their artistic pursuits. Meanwhile, Clara and Charlie develop an intimate relationship. Charlie admits that he’s falling in love with her and asks if she’d consider relocating to England. Clara cares for Charlie but isn’t sure. She needs to return to the United States to accept her Caldecott Award and reconvene with Timothy. She’s also frustrated that she still hasn’t found any answers about Bronwyn’s connection to Charlie’s father, Callum.

Then, one day, Charlie suggests taking Clara to meet his father’s cousin Isolde. He thinks that she might have some answers for Clara. Clara is shocked when she discovers that Isolde is Bronwyn. Inside her cottage, Bronwyn explains everything that happened. When she fled Bluffton, she came to England. She and Callum were friends from years prior, and he was the only one she could trust. He agreed to hide her identity and told his family that she was his cousin. She stayed in Cumbria to escape her fraught past back in the US.

Clara is glad to see Bronwyn again but also feels angry and upset. She calls Timothy with the news, and he books a voyage overseas. While they wait for his arrival, Clara and Bronwyn spend several days in difficult conversation. They make amends for everything that happened. Then, Timothy arrives. He and Bronwyn reunite and rekindle their relationship. When Timothy says that he’s staying in Cumbria, Bronwyn and Charlie suggest that Clara and Wynnie stay, too.

Clara goes outside for some air. Studying the landscape, she realizes that she’s ready to accept Charlie into her heart and forgive her mother. She decides to stay in England and make a life with her new family.

In 1962, Wynnie, Clara, and Bronwyn finish rewriting Bronwyn’s sequel to The Middle Place. They take Bronwyn’s original sequel, burn it, and scatter the ashes near the lake.