Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges—the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.
Setting in motion the novel’s chain of life-altering passions and the wartime perfidy at its core is the arrival of the German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidents—including a German U-boat’s sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferry Caribou—lend intense narrative power to Norman’s uncannily layered story.
Wyatt’s account of the astonishing events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later. What Is Left the Daughter is Howard Norman at his celebrated best.
The New York Times - Daniel Wallace
What Is Left the Daughter is about the dubious choices otherwise sensible people make in the crucible of a terrible war. Some of the choices are minor…but others could not be more important. There is a lot of death in this book. I count seven important deaths…and half a dozen minor ones besides, a high body count for any novel. Yet the book is never overwhelmingly dark or morbid, which is a feat. Wyatt's voice and Norman's crisp, readable style keep the story fresh.