Clara is leading what she thinks is a wonderful, normal life with her beloved husband and two daughters when armed men barge in the house and separate her from her husband and daughters. The last thing her husband yells to her is ‘say nothing’.
The Girl Before reads like an autobiography as it switches back and forth from present to past. It is a powerful and sad story of child abduction, human trafficking, and Stockholm syndrome. We see the pure innocence of a child and the amazing inner strength of the young woman Clara has become as she must try and figure out what is really normal.