What We Leave Behind, Sue Halpern
What We Leave Behind, Sue Halpern
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What We Leave Behind
A Novel

Author: Sue Halpern

Narrator: Alexa Elmy, Allyson Ryan

Unabridged: 11 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/24/2025

Synopsis

From the author of Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, a tenderhearted story of two very different women grappling with the messy emotional legacies passed down by their parents—for fans of Dani Shapiro, Ann Napolitano, and Jodi Picoult.It’s the perennial question: are we a product of how we were raised, or is our identity hardwired by our genetic inheritance? When her adoptive mother dies in a freak accident, high school senior Melody Marcus doubles down on her refusal to learn anything about her birth parents. In this age of 23&me, though, that may not be possible, and the secrets hidden in her DNA threaten to upend everything she knows about herself and her family. For Candace Milton, a successful woman in her forties, the collateral damage from her parents’ tortured marriage has led to a life of intentional unattachment. She is happy—enough. But a chance encounter with a friend of Melody’s father will challenge this assumption and force her to reimagine who she is and who she might become.Big-hearted, evocative, and achingly relatable, What We Leave Behind grapples with destiny, belonging, and love, and makes us question our own idea of family: the kind we’re born into and the kind we create.  

About Sue Halpern

Sue Halpern is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Summer Hours at the Robbers Library. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, Rolling Stone, and Condé Nast Traveler. A former New Yorker staff writer, she lives in Vermont with her husband, the writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben, and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Olivia on March 26, 2025

3.5, rounded up | this quiet novel tells the story of Melody after her adoptive mom dies in a tragic accident. It also is the story of Candice, a high level HR executive. I kept waiting for there to be more overlap in the two plot lines. The writing in this books is beautiful, and if you like quiet......more

Goodreads review by haslerroberson on June 30, 2025

So I was initially feeling optimistic about this book- it’s dual-pov which I typically enjoy, and it started with such a morbid premise (a woman dying by way of a rogue boulder) that I figured it would end up being oddly funny and heartwarming, like The Wedding People (which was my favorite book fro......more

Goodreads review by Tina on June 18, 2025

Full of everyday details and observations that fill in the gaps between the sorrows these characters are navigating. This was an ARC.......more

Goodreads review by Lori L on June 05, 2025

What We Leave Behind by Sue Halpern is a highly recommended domestic drama following two women of different ages and backgrounds. Delia Marcus, wife of Eddie and mother to Melody, 17, dies in a freak accident. While Eddie is deeply mourning a woman he loves, Melody, who was adopted at age 3, is both......more

Goodreads review by Ellen on June 20, 2025

I received a free copy from Harper Perennial, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I really enjoyed this book because although it involved grief it was a lighthearted read. Melody, a teenager, and her father Eddie are grieving and navigating life after loss. She’s trying to decide what to do wi......more

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