The Lost Chapter

 by Caroline Bishop

This is the story of an American woman who was sent to a girl's school in France in the 50's.  She did not adjust well to the rules, the curriculum -- organizing parties, flower arranging, managing staff in a household etc.  She is befriended by one of the girls.

The story gets a bit confusing.  There are two girls at the school, they are on an outing to the opera and The American girl falls for a man she meets at intermission.  She eventually convinces her brother to write letters as her father saying this man is her relative and he can take her on outings out of the building.  They eventually have sex and she gets pregnant.  The man tells her to have an abortion.  She can't afford it and decides to run away.  She invites her friend to join her.... but then the friend doesn't show up.  We find out this girl may have killed this man later on accidentally.

We then meet this American woman who is now 70 years of age, a cat lady and print maker.  She befriends a young girl who is grieving the death of her best friend who was hit by a car.  The mother tries to be close to the girl but isn't having success.  The old woman tries to get the girl interested in print making and to go to art school instead of study business.

Then the old woman discovers a book, authored by the woman who was her best friend.  She starts to read it and realizes it is roughly based on her time at the school in France.  The woman decides she needs to reconnect with her BF and invites the girl and her mother to accompany her to France.

The woman does meet up with her friend.  It is the French girl who had a baby.  She and her daughter now run a flower shop. She finds out the man who got her pregnant did not die after all and is still alive.  This takes a big weight off the American.

The old woman and the girl's mother try to convince the young girl that she is not responsible for her friend's death.  However, I am not sure I agree, she had a fight with her friend and pushed her into the street where she was hit and killed.  I think that she is somewhat responsible.

I found the story a bit confusing, with the different woman in life and in the book.  It was kind of predictable.  They keep referring to the girl's father but he is nowhere around, not sure if the parents are divorced or what... I was glad when I was done.