Richard & Judy Introduce If I Let You Go by Charlotte Levin

This is a wonderful heartwarming story. Janet, an office cleaner in Manchester, lives a quiet, sad life full of guilt over the tragic accident that killed her little girl years ago. Then she becomes involved in a train crash, and is feted for saving the life of another little girl. She blossoms in the national praise. But all is not as it seems, and neither is Janet’s memory. Truly gripping, tender and moving.

Judy's Review:

Janet Brown, an ordinary middle aged woman, works as an office cleaner in Manchester.

Her life is quiet and dull, and her husband is an emotional bully. She sees all this as deserved punishment for her part eleven years ago in a tragic accident which killed her only child, Claire. Her unpleasant husband Colin uses her guilt to control her.

Then one despairing day something amazing happens. Janet becomes involved in a train crash, and it appears she’s saved the life of Elizabeth, another little girl. The press gets hold of the story and suddenly Janet is a heroine, in the papers and on television.

At first she’s elated; she sees this as redemption, as a sign that she’s been forgiven for her guilt about Claire’s death.

Until she becomes aware of the truth.

Richard's Review:

This is such a clever book.

It is completely believable in its description of Janet’s story, her crippling guilt, her constant grief for her dead daughter Claire, and her coercive husband, a taxi driver, who uses Janet’s guilt to control her.

And then everything changes and Janet is a hero. She’s a likeable character, and Levin manages to make her sympathetic even as the universal praise for her brave rescue of another little girl from a train crash goes to Janet’s head, and she briefly becomes rather arrogant.

When she realises her memory is not as it seems, the ending is not simply cruel. There is real redemption, real light at the end of a beautifully written novel that is a joy to read, tender, moving, and at times slyly funny.

A triumph.