“The Story She Left Behind” by Patti Callahan Henry
Author of “The Secret Book of Flora Lea,” Patti Callahan Henry returns to the English countryside and another literary mystery with her new novel. It begins in South Carolina when 8-year-old Clara’s mother, author of a popular book written in an invented language, disappears, taking with her all hope of translating the book’s sequel. Twenty-five years later a man named Charlie calls Clara from England to say he has a dictionary of her mother’s made-up language. When Clara crosses the pond with her daughter to claim the dictionary, a historic natural disaster — the Great Smog — forces them to take refuge at Charlie’s family retreat in the Lake district where long buried truths are revealed. (Atria Books, March 18)