The Book of Lost Friends - Lisa Wingate

The Book of Lost Friends

By Lisa Wingate

  • Release Date: 2020-04-07
  • Genre: Historical Fiction
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 1,272 Ratings

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post–Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.

“An absorbing historical . . . enthralling.”—Library Journal


Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away.

Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery’s end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt—until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

Reviews

  • Wonderful Southern history

    5
    By Lace54
    Loved the idea of bringing the past and the present together re Southern history. Opened my eyes to so much……🙏❤️
  • Worth reading

    5
    By BMM&BSM
    Wonderful, well written. Detailed and heartfelt.
  • Spellbinding!

    5
    By Tresanon1
    We all know about the hideous awful things that were done during one of our nation's most appalling periods but this book brings it home so thoroughly, and in a way that shows how we are all connected.
  • The Book of Lost Friends

    5
    By 323EL
    This novel is wonderful in many ways, first in the two stories that fill in the spaces as the book progresses and secondly with the excellent character depth that causes us to keep reading. This is one of those novels that you hate to see end.
  • The Book of Lost Friends

    5
    By The Eyes of March
    The Book of Lost Friends evokes feelings of loss and also of hope written in an era lost except for in the written word. So poignant ! I absolutely loved Wingate’s first book Before We Were Yours and her second novel does not disappoint.
  • DW

    5
    By Fly like an Eagle
    Very interesting, great history, well written. Loved it and would recommend it !
  • The Lost Friends.

    5
    By Pitty Pat Gamer
    Part of USA history from during the Civil War until 1988. This book intertwines a family’s history an d the desire to reunite a family torn apart.
  • The Book of Lost Frinds

    5
    By Willybird47
    Loved every minute, every word of this book. Should be required reading for every high school student. It’s important to know/remember all of our history...the good and the bad.
  • Eh

    3
    By MJW6506
    It was okay just didn’t seem to hold my attention. Not a “page turner”
  • I One Was Lost

    5
    By 55 Hicks
    I haven’t been this captivated by a book in a very long time. “I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.” Scott Martin

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