Title: The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Historical, Contemporary, Literary Fiction
Length: 387 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a new historical novel: the dramatic story 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.
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.
Review:
Weaving back and forth in time, The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is a captivating novel that is based on factual events.
In 1875, freedwoman Hannie Gossett is living on the plantation where she was enslaved and working hard to fulfill the sharecropping contract. Fearing her former mistress will destroy the contract, Hannie follows the owner’s daughter Lavinia Gossett and Lavinia’s Creole half sister Juneau Jane in order to protect her land. Emancipation may have freed her, but Hannie is well aware of the risks she is facing on what soon becomes a perilous journey. Needing time for Lavinia and Juneau Jane to recover from a harrowing ordeal, the trio find shelter in a hidden Negro church. While staying there, the life-altering discovery of the Lost Friend ads in the Southwestern Christian Advocate gives hope Hannie hope that she will find her long missing family. As Hannie, Lavinia and Juneau Jane search for the sisters’ missing father, they begin collecting more Lost Friend ads as their journey continues.
In 1987, Benedetta “Benny” Silva is the new English teacher at a poverty stricken, overcrowded school in Augustine, LA. Despairing of engaging her students, she stumbles onto an innovative idea that inspires her class to investigate the long forgotten yet all important past. With the help of family maverick Nathan Gossett, Benny has located long hidden documents that detail his family’s unpalatable history. Benny is excited about the prospect of bringing her students’ stories to life, but she meets resistance from the school board and the wealthy Gossett family who would rather keep their sordid stories from the public eye.
Although initially a little slow paced, both story arcs are extremely fascinating. Hannie, Lavinia and Juneau Jane’s travels are richly detailed and paint an unvarnished portrait of life after the Civil War. The inclusion of original Lost Friend ads offers a horrifying and poignant glimpse of the buying and selling of slaves. Benny’s storyline highlights the importance of family history and the stories that are handed down from one generation to the next. The two story arcs eventually intersect in unexpected but important ways.
The Book of Lost Friends is a riveting novel that shines a much needed light on an important part of American history. The characters are three-dimensional, well-developed and appealing. From the wild and dangerous Texas frontier to the hardscrabble life in Augustine, LA in the present, Lisa Wingate brings this heartfelt and emotional story vibrantly to life. A multi-faceted and educational part of history that I absolutely loved and highly recommend.
