This is an auction for THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND by Jojo Moyes.

"In part one of Jojo Moyes's latest novel, Sophie Lefèvre and her family are running a small-town hotel, Le Coq Rouge. But, the year is 1916 and this is German-occupied France, where day-to-day life for the inhabitants of St Péronne vacillates wildly between brutality, fragility and desperation. Moyes adroitly captures the details of life under occupation: the furtive looks and shared shame; the tragedy of neighbours and family members turning on each other; the small defiances, including the squirrelling away of family treasures. While an incident with a suckling pig in disguise provides tension and humour, a grandfather clock hidden beneath a vegetable patch ("the town crunched underfoot with valuables that had been hastily buried under gardens and pathways") poignantly brings home people's desperation to retain heirlooms during war . . . When a German Kommandant falls under the spell of a painting in the hotel (a portrait of Sophie created by her husband), the stage is set for painful complications . . . "

• The Independent (UK)

Very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jojo Moyes is a novelist and a journalist. She worked at the Independent for ten years before leaving to write full time. Her previous novels have all been critically acclaimed and include The Ship of Brides, Foreign Fruit andThe Last Letter from Your Lover. She lives in Essex with her husband and their three children.

Penguin paperback 2014.

514 pages.

Near new condition.

The cost of shipping is $3.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.