The Book of Lost Friends

​I chose The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate to read because I thoroughly enjoyed Before We Were Yours about the corruption scandal surrounding the Tennessee Home Children’s Society. The Book of Lost Friends takes us to Louisiana in 1875 during the time of reconstruction after the Civil War. It tells the story of Hannie, a freed slave, whose mother and family were taken and one by one sold as slaves. Hannie is determined to find her family. She uses the “Lost Friends” advertisements published in Southern newspapers after the Civil War to help families reunite with their loved ones. The novel alternates between 1875 and 1987. In 1987 outsider, Bendetta Silva, moves to a rural town in Louisiana to teach in an impoverished school. In a desperate attempt to motivate her students, she  uncovers the town's dark secrets hidden in a run-down plantation.
Read more about this novel at the Reading Ladies Book Club. Lisa Wingate takes us back to a dark time in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power. 

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