Natasha Lester is a New York Times bestselling author. Now, she’s re-releasing her award-winning debut novel, What is Left Over After, in a new edition with a stunning, fresh cover.
When it comes to love, Gaelle is careful. But when it comes to friendship, her heart betrays her in unexpected ways.
Gaelle has a dream job working for a fashion magazine, and a husband who loves her. Life should be perfect, but life does not always go according to plan. Feeling lost and alone, Gaelle flees to a tiny seaside town on the other side of the country. As she revisits the legacy of a strange, sometimes magical childhood in France, Gaelle finds unexpected help from a thirteen-year-old stranger.
As if she was experiencing her childhood all over again, she must ask: when you lose everything you love, what is left over after?
Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L’Oreal before turning her hand to writing. What is Left Over After was her debut, and it won the Hungerford Award. Since then, she’s become a bestselling author of seven historical novels, including The French Photographer, The Paris Secret and The Riviera House.
I’ve been a long-time follower of Lester’s work, but had, surprisingly, never read her debut; now I finally understand the hype and its award-winning status. Like most of Lester’s novels, What is Left Over After is well-written and well-paced, but it’s also unique in her mostly historical fiction repertoire. This sits within the contemporary fiction genre; it’s hopeful and full of love, while also being tragic and quite confronting at times.
Ultimately, this a story of unmothered mothering that prompts a lot of contemplation. In this, we see time jumps from a thirty-six-week pregnant Gaelle, to a few months after the birth. Fleeing her life with little more than her clothes, camera and her cosmetics, she meets thirteen-year-old Selena whose friendship opens the door to Gaelle’s childhood and complicated upbringing.
Full of suspense from start to finish, I read this novel in one weekend. There is an unusual rhythm to Lester’s writing here, that is fitting with the novel’s themes of grief, displacement and dysfunctionality. Gaelle is a complex character who is kind and likeable – and misunderstood. Through her relationship with Selena, Gaelle’s world is unravelled at a fantastic pace and all begins to make sense.
Lester writes lyrically and compellingly, with a host of multi-layered characters that will have you rooting and rejecting them in their own ways. Readers are lead through a complex maze of motherhood, marriage, childhood and learning to find yourself when all is lost. More so, it’s about the consequences of grief and the proceeding impact that can have on life.
What is Left Over After would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift for new readers and existing fans who want to add this new edition to their collection. I highly recommend this, and the rest of Lester’s fantastic collection of novels.
Leave a Reply