Where I Left Them, in pictures
There is little in Where I Left Them that is not true, in some form or another. In fact, a Hollywood costume designer recently told me there are celebrated designers — Lily Fonda, Ruth Morley — who share elements of the past I’ve fictionalized. Below, the images that inspired my characters.
THE SUITCASE
Government-issue military cases served as protection for such treasures as photos and letters from loved ones. In Where I Left Them, a granddaughter locks her memories up in just such a hand-me-down case — but is she hiding her past from the world, or from herself?
In the ’70s, LONDON
was becoming a truly cosmopolitan city for the first time, as the legacy of the collapse of the British Empire wore the face of immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, reshaping whole post codes. Tit for tat. A hard-working, multi-cultural, post imperial target for anti-immigration white working-class anger, the clash heard ‘round the world. This was the London welcoming the Eliot family from New Jersey. ~from Where I Left Them
PARIS, 1945
Arriving in France after the war had been like walking into the sun. Elsewhere in Europe, people scuttled about wearing wool sweaters in July, no joy to be found. But liberated from Nazi rule, Parisians danced, sang, even kissed in the streets. ~ from The Costume Maker
IN RUINS
The RAF had spared little. Berlin’s great Bahnhof had been badly bombed, burned out walls barely containing piles of ruined brick. Streets were littered with charred carcasses of automobiles, grand limestone facades crumbled like breadcrumbs. Telephone wires lay jumbled in gullies that had once been wide promenades.
~from Where I Left Them MORE>
BERLIN
<-1938
1945->
Though seven years and a lifetime had passed, Willi had known the way from the train station to the elegant brownstone on Leipziger Strasse. She grasped Opa’s suitcase as she walked the streets she had once skipped down holding his hand. Rubble trembled and fell around her, turning to dust. Though it was July, Berliners were dressed for winter, layered in all their clothes as though they didn’t trust leaving them in their cupboards. Or they had none.
~from Where I Left Them MORE>