There was a novel about time-travelling love before The Time Travellers Wife. It is called Ferney, written by James Long, and to my mind is far superior. The Lives She Left Behind is the sequel.
When I finished Ferney, I couldn’t imagine how the story could continue. After all, we’d worked out how the time travel worked and what the relationship implications and difficulties were. I feared that a sequel would be a let-down, some books are just meant to be stand-alone novels. I am pleased to say I was wrong. The Lives She Left Behind is as heart-wrenching as the first, combined with a thriller element involving murder and sexual assault. Misunderstandings across the centuries, modern policing methods and contemporary parenting, all combine to make the lives of Ferney and Gally difficult. Ferney explains his connection with Gally: ‘Our halves are nothing on their own but half and half make one and halves, divided, stand alone when the adding’s done.’
The second book can be read on its own, but I do urge you to read Ferney first. Both novels are infused with the Somerset countryside and the history of England. Ferney and Gally remember the old names of roads, remember when the tiny plantation of trees was an entire wood, when kings had different names.
Three teenage girls go on their first archaeological dig, not knowing what to expect. Into their lives falls a teenage boy on a bike, pulled to that location by some force within himself. The action moves to the ancient village of Pen Selwood as Ferney and Gally find each other again. To read my review of Ferney, click here.
If you like this, try:-
‘In Another Life’ by Julie Christine Johnson
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter
‘Outline’ by Rachel Cusk
‘The Lives She Left Behind’ by James Long [UK: Simon and Schuster] Buy now
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