We That Are Left

A New York Times Editors' Choice

A Washington Post “Notable Fiction Book of 2015”

 “[A] lavishly detailed historical novel that doesn’t just recreate the past but alters your perception of it.”—New York Times Book Review 

“As always, [Clark’s] environments are deliciously luxe. . . With splendid breadth and depth, We That Are Left accommodates an era’s worth of historical reverberations within the confines of its highly polished rooms.”—Washington Post
 
Growing up at Ellinghurst, their crumbling family estate, all three Melville children dream of escape. Headstrong Jessica yearns for the glitter and glamor of London while Phyllis longs to attend university. The adored Theo, meanwhile, eclipses everyone around him. None of the children take much notice of Oskar Grunewald, their mother’s science-obsessed godson, who instead seeks refuge in Ellinghurst’s enormous library.

But when the cataclysm of the Great War devastates the Melvilles’ world and reshapes their futures, Jessica and Phyllis must forge new paths in a world that no longer plays by the old rules. As Oskar is drawn reluctantly back into the Melville family fold, his life entwines with theirs in ways that will transform all of their futures forever.
 
In We That Are Left, Clare Clark brings us a new story of an old family whose reckoning with change will haunt and resonate for many generations.
 
“We That Are Left is still haunting me. It offers an utterly convincing sense of period; a story that tugs at you; characters who are surprising, tender, hurt; emotions crushed, misunderstood, exploding; on every page the unresolved intensity of real life.”—William Nicholson, author of Lovers of Amherst