I loved this book! Having recently read, "Before We Were Yours," I was excited to read this next novel by Lisa Wingate. It did not disappoint. The transition between Hannie's story and Benedetta's struggles in her new school was smooth and seamless. Often going back and forth between characters can make the story disconnected. But, that was not the case here. When I finished the book (in one sitting!), I was simultaneously crying and smiling. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy her writing. I'm already looking forward to the next book!

As an aside, and an Arkansan, I was pleased that her character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Elam Salter, was based on real-life Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves.

The Book of Lost Friends is a beautiful, yet heartbreaking story about a time in our history that is not talked about very much. As slaves were freed, they tirelessly searched for the family members who were torn from their lives. This book of lost friends was a way to get names out there to try to reconnect with them. Personally, this information was all new to me and not something I had learned about in my history classes.

Set in alternating timelines, over one hundred years apart, the reader follows the lives of Hannie, a former slave and Benedetta, a new teacher in a poor rural school. Lisa does an amazing job with the dual timelines and brings the story together at the end of the book in very creative and satisfying way. I love stories like this one, where two or more seemingly unrelated story-lines all come together in the end.

Just like with Before We Were Yours her previous book, The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa takes a piece of our little known history and brings it to our attention so that we don't forget. She is a wonderful writer and the story is beautifully written with words of wisdom all throughout. I love this line in particular—"Stories change people. History, real history, helps people understand each other, see each other from the inside out."

I am definitely a fan of anything Lisa writes. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommended it!

Oh my goodness, I have so many wonderful thoughts towards this one that I hardly know where to begin. Lisa Wingate has written herself another masterful must-read! She wrote right to the heart of a historical fiction admirer, and created a story worthy of affirming what it is that makes history so vital. One quote that has etched itself into my mind is: "We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name." Even if a historical fiction piece is not based on a specific real-life person, it's (hopefully) rooted in truth from the time period is describes, and is a way to keep history alive from generation to generation.

One of my favorite themes in this novel was remembering history whether it was good or bad. It's easier for us to focus on the good things and pretend like the bad never happened, but if we are to learn from our mistakes and be able to fully appreciate our pasts, we have to take the bad with the good. For Hannie, if slavery was to be washed away as if it never happened, her entire family tree would be forgotten as if they'd never existed. The hardships they'd endured would be swept under the rug. In a way it felt like reading this story was a cry for her life to not be erased.

I liked how the author used the contemporary timeline to appeal to not only the students in Benny's class, but the reader themselves. She had entered a school where it was very obvious that life was rough for many of the kids. Seeking a way to reach them, she came up with a plan to personalize history for them and to make it more real and tangible. She encouraged them to find out about their own family histories and how some of them even tied together. She didn't just teach them about history, but helped feed an appreciation of it. Oh, how this whole idea just gripped my heart and made me love this story a gazillion times more <3

I guarantee this one will be making my favorites list this year. Absolutely masterful. I highly recommend this to all of my historical fiction friends. I'm sure that despite the sadness that is also found within, it will also bring a smile to your face.

*I received a copy of this book through NetGalley. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.

Amazingly vivid with beautiful lyrical prose that will have you happily turning the pages. One of the best books I have read so far this year. This amazing book is a must read that I wish I could give more than five stars. Dazzling. Absolutely dazzling.

If you believe what Gone With the Wind and your public school education tells you then slavery and racism in America concluded at the end of the Civil War. In fact, for those who were enslaved the misery persisted long afterward. The Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and current methods of disenfranchisement has served to keep many black people from reaching their full potential.

In her book, Ms. Wingate shines a light on an aspect of the ordeals of the enslaved to reunite their families post-slavery. I had never heard of the Lost Friends ads before. In Louisiana, a newspaper called the Southwestern Christian Advocate, posted advertisements where people could search for lost loved ones who had moved or been sold away during slavery. Local churches would read those advertisements aloud in order to help people find their families again. It is heartbreaking but life-affirming. People will always find a way to try to be together again and I sincerely hope that many of them did find one another again.

In this book, a young woman named Hannie is in search of her family, but also finds herself on a journey to help a young white woman, one of her former owners, and the girl’s half-white, half-Creole sister reclaim an inheritance from a missing father.

In the present day, well the 1980’s, a young teacher finds records and the lost friends articles and hopes to use them to reach her teenage students, and allow them to make a connection with their past.

I enjoyed this book. It’s not often that I stray outside of fantasy books lately, but the synopsis for this one captured me. Ms. Wingate treats the subject with respect and skill. I’m glad I read it. I hope you will like it as well.

Bonus link: Lost Friends database at the Historic New Orleans Collection

I love Lisa Windgate's ability to take historical events and write an interesting and emotional read from it I find myself looking for more information after reading her books, as she brings attention to little known events in history. This storyline focuses on The Lost Friends advertisements that appeared in newspapers across the South as slaves that had been freed searched for loved ones. The dual timelines in this book was a brilliant move on the author's part. I highly recommend this along with the author's other books.

I knew when I saw a new Lisa Wingate book on netgalley that I had to have it because I loved Before We Were Yours by her. I can safely say that it did not disappoint!

The Book of Lost Friends is written in dual timelines between 1875 &1987 inspired by real, historical events in Louisiana. A slow build up of the story helps to emotionally tug at your heartstrings leading up to the powerful ending. As you go into it I thought it to be a book about the struggles after the Civil War and left the book feeling hopeful for our future and what we can learn from the past. I did prefer Benny's chapters more than Hannie's, although I'm not really sure why

It's 4.5/5 stars for me and a must read for historical fictions lovers out there!!

Thank you to the author, netgalley and Ballantine books for the arc in exchange for an honest review

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘕𝘰 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴."⁣
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The Book Of Lost Friends is a historical fiction novel that follows the same formatting of the bestselling Before We Were Yours by the same author Lisa Wingate.  I absolutely loved Before We Were Yours so was very excited to read this book. I was not at all disappointed. ⁣
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The story alternates between two narrators, in two different timelines (1987 & 1875). The current timeline follows a young teacher, Benny, who is new to a small town in Louisiana, an area that has a history long affected by the plantation that had been there a century before. The earlier timeline had me crying within the first 5 minutes of the book. It follows Hannie Gossett, a young girl who is a freed slave and current sharecropper. The atrocities of the time have split her from her family when they were sold in different southern states. She stumbles upon the "Lost Friends" classified ads being published in a southern newspaper and read aloud in by pastors in predominantly black churches. ⁣
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In the book, the author includes real ads, from real people who were split from their families during this horrible time in our nation's past. This adds an amazing, yet heartbreaking, dose of reality and history to the story.  Wingate has written another accurate, well-researched, fiction novel that opens the readers eyes to a tragic and important, history. ⁣
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𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘳: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 Ballantine Books 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 NetGalley 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.⁣

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Lisa Wingate for the opportunity to read and review her latest historical fiction novel. 5 stars for such an amazing story based in the sad past of slavery.

The story is told in the viewpoints of two women, a century apart. Hannie, is a slave and the last of her family returned to the plantation home of the Gossetts, the others being sold further into slavery. Lavinia is the spoiled daughter of the plantation owners. Lavinia embarks on a journey with her illegitimate half-sister, Juneau Jane, and Hannie, looking for their father who has gone missing. In 1987, first-year teacher Benny is desperate to make a connection with her students, most who come to school hungry if they come at all, and who no one has hope for. When Benny gains access to a book of the Gossett clan, things begin to change for her and her students.

In between these chapters are haunting, real life advertisements placed in a southern newspaper by freed slaves desperate for word on their lost family members.

An amazing story that needed to be told to keep all those voices alive. Highly recommended!

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is a story of recovering history when time and people have long buried it. The story opens with a young girl, as she prepares to make an important speech, and her teacher who encourages her to be a voice for those lost. Rewind to Louisiana, 1875 as Hannie Gossett, 18, wakes from a vivid and recurring dream of when her family was torn apart. She lives on an old plantation which used to see grander days. She soon finds herself on a journey that takes her far from her home and on a path to a new beginning. The next chapter opens with Benedetta “Benny” Silva in Augustine, Louisiana, 1987. She is having a horrible beginning to her first day as a teacher. She tries to teach her students; but they aren’t interested in the symbolism of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Switching between Hannie in 1875 and Benny in 1987, the two timelines emerge as Hannie searches for a missing person, she begins to collect the names of lost family members for people she meets on her journey, in hopes to reunite families as well as finding her own. Benny struggles to find a way to reach her students when a chance discovering of an old family Bible and leather ledger sends Benny and her students on a history lesson that threatens to shake the status quo.
The Book of Lost Friends is inspired by the real letters from the “Lost Friends” column of the Southwestern Christian Advocate which published letters from freed slaves looking for their families. It was a piece of history that I wasn’t not aware of and was interested to read as Ms. Wingate uses the actual letters from the column. The book is essentially about remembering those who came before us as the main theme can be found in this quote: “We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name.” This theme reminded me of the second death seen in Disney’s Coco (2017). The book is very slow moving as it switches between timelines. It isn’t clear how the two are connected until about three-quarters into the story. It truly didn’t become interesting until the connection is made between the timelines and the action speeds up. It was hard to connect with the characters. I found Hannie to be the most interesting and a bit surprising as she finds herself in situations that she must learn to adapt on the fly. I found Benny to be a bit naïve and dim. She was the stereotypical first year teacher who was going to have an impact on her students. She seems at a loss when her first attempts fail miserably. Some of the conflict which I thought would boil over and cause a big “battle” fizzled and the “villains” of the story essentially would just be feared from afar. Overall, I enjoyed the book as a piece of history is used to tell the lost family history of many black families. And if readers are willing to stick with it, I think they will find that they will enjoy it too. I recommend The Book of Lost Friends.

The Book of Lost Friends
is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook

Lisa Wingate’s latest historical fiction novel is The Book of Lost Friends. It is based on actual newspaper clippings from the south in 1875 with newly freed slaves attempting to find friends and family after being separated and sold. In this portion of story we follow three women as they attempt to reconnect with their family. Set as a dual timeline we also follow a new high school teacher in Louisiana in 1987 attempting to connect with her English students. Wingates storytelling ability is amazing and I truly felt invested in these characters. While I was compelled to fly through this book to see how the story unfolds I also reflected so much on the writing itself and appreciated the huge amount of research that went into this. I have already ordered my audio format of this book and can’t wait to hear their voices come to life. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

True grit, stamina, and complete determination, along with hidden family skeletons. We are given two young woman over hundred years apart, one a struggling teacher in a hard school, the other a freed slave who used to live on the property that our teachers renting.
Of course, they never meet, but what a connection is formed here, I felt like I was living history. These woman go to great extremes to help those they are now in charge of, and you wonder where they get the fortitude to continue.
The story has a great amount of history, showing a great deal of injustice, and if you try and put yourself in Hannie's shoes, I couldn't. There are tears and smiles, and be sure to read the notes at the end, full of information, and completion!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Ballantine Books, and was not required to give a positive review.

Beautifully written, compelling and powerful, Lisa Wingate’s novel The Book of Lost Friends is a testimony to the strength of stories that sustain us. This book was outstanding! Based on real ads written by former slaves seeking their family, Wingate weaves a story using those ads to connect dual storylines, one in 1987 and one in 1875, a story about family and our need to know our stories. “Sad thing when stories die for the lack of listenin’ ears.”

Post Civil War, Hannie reluctantly becomes involved with Lavinia, her former owner’s daughter, and Juneau Jane, her owner’s illegitimate daughter, when the girls set off to determine their inheritance to the plantation of Goswood Grove House. Hannie wants to protect her sharecropping interest on the land, but things go in a vastly different direction as she finds she must help the girls survive.

Benny Silva enthusiastically starts her first teaching job in a low-income school, but finds most students lacking in skills, motivation and confidence. She struggles to find books for them to read and grapples with behavior issues. When she finds a way to connect the students with their family history, they are involved and eager, willing to learn, but Benny encounters opposition to her unorthodox approach..

The beauty of the writing absolutely shines in this book. Wingate is spot on with the challenges of a teacher — the frustration, the heartbreak, the perseverance. I could totally relate to that storyline as a teacher. The use of dialects definitely enhanced the authenticity of a different time period and culture. Highly recommended!

I started this and couldn’t finish it at all. I had high hopes and the writing is beautiful. However the storyline was just too depressing during this time for me to read and and unfortunately couldn’t bother to continue.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House / Ballantine Books for the advanced copy for my honest review.

If you are a fan of historical fiction you really should not miss reading The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate! This book is incredible. It is told in two time lines and the characters are so realistic you will find yourself rooting for them from beginning to end. In many ways the story is very sad as it is about slavery and how the slaves were torn from their families and sold off to plantation owners in other parts of the country. The author has done extensive research and this has so much realism. I have read other books by Lisa Wingate and was looking forward to reading this one. and she didn't disappoint. It is a sad but at the same time a uplifting read.

This is a captivating dual-time period work of historical fiction. Lisa Wingate’s newest work alternates 1875 and 1987. In 1875 we meet Hannie Gossett, a former slave, who is now a sharecropper on her former master’s decaying plantation in Louisiana. Her mother and all her siblings were traded away, and though she memorized who bought them and where, she does not know how to begin to look for them. In 1987, Benedetta “Benny” Silva has taken her first teaching job in a poor rural community in Louisiana, where the she struggles to find a way to connect with her students through literature.
In 1875 Hannie, Lavinia Gossett, the plantation owner’s legitimate daughter and Juneau Jane (Lavinia’s illegitimate half-sister) are thrown together in a quest to find Lavinia and Juneau Jane’s father. Taking them through post-civil war Louisiana and Texas, they face a myriad of dangerous men, from horse thieves to modern day slavers looking to fill the brothels. While on their journey the trio happen upon a church whose walls are covered with what appears to be random newspapers. Upon closer inspection, Juneau and Hannie discover that they are actually published letters from former slaves telling the stories of their lost friends and families, seeking to be reconnected. Moved by the letters, they gather them up and take them with. While on their journey, the book they have created with the letters becomes longer and longer as those they meet on the way, tell them their own tales.
Benny’s struggles in 1987, seem insurmountable. The student’s in her classes are uninterested in what she is attempting to teach, and the problems of their own lives and struggles seem of more importance to them. Coming upon a history of the town and its inhabitants, Benny and her students come up with a project to each research an ancestor and put on a “cemetery walk” to tell the stories they have uncovered. However, the former plantation’s white descendants and others in the community do not want these stories to come out.
In this wonderfully crafted mix of fiction and fact, Wingate brings the two-story lines together in a moving and heart-felt ending. The story intersperses real letters from the “Lost Friends” column that lasted into the early 20th century. This is well-researched and beautifully written. Both heart-breaking and inspiring, this is a novel that will leave every reader richer for having lived in its pages. For historical fiction fans, fans of post-civil war novels, and those who enjoy literary fiction. This will be a favorite of book groups everywhere.

What a incredible and beautifully written story spanning the years from 1875 to 1987. The chapters alternate from past to present told from the perspective of Hannie, a freed slave and Benny, a first year teacher teaching in rural Louisiana. What follows is an emotional tale that will stay with you for days after finishing the book.
The story is both heartbreaking, touching and heartwarming.
Lisa Wingate truly has brought her readers a very powerful story in The Book of Lost Friends.
Highly recommend you read this book if you are a lover of southern historical fiction and post Civil War era.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author, Lisa Wingate, for the opportunity to read and give my honest review about this book.

I rate this book a 4.5. Another great book by Lisa Wingate.

Mostly set in Louisiana (with a bit of Texas thrown in,) the chapters alternate between Benny Silva's story in 1987 and Hannie Gossett in 1885. Hannie is a young woman, a freed slave, still working for her former master and his wife. When her former master's 16-year-old white daughter and 14-year-old daughter with his New Orleans mistress are kidnapped while trying to find their missing father, she goes after them and follows them into the deep South. Benny is a young first-year teacher at the very poor public school in Augustine, LA, where the school board does its best to make sure the children at that school get the worst education possible.

Through these characters, this book tells the story of how freed slaves tried to find and reconnect with their family members, even decades later, through newspaper postings and word of mouth. However, this book was fairly PG-rated in how it handled racism. It wasn't ignored, but it was definitely more in the background for a lot of it, especially with the school board in the modern time story.

This book started off slowly, but if you'll push through the first few chapters, it is absolutely worth it. I personally preferred Hannie's chapters and was always disappointed when they ended. She was a very strong character who risked her own life and freedom to save the other two girls, even with the past treatment of her when she was a slave.

And without giving anything away, I also really liked how the stories connected through studying ancestors and learning about Augustine's past.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Lisa Wingate "Before We Were Yours" does it again! This story flows between Hannie in the 1880's and Benny in the 1980's. The book starts out with Hannie and her family, a free slaves who were kidnapped and taken to Texas to be sold again. They were sold off one by one and were separated. Hannie was finally found by agents and sent back to the farm she was freed from. Flash forward, Bennie moves into town and rents out a house on this large plantation not knowing the history but wants to find out! This book hit every one of my emotions like Lisa Wingate does so well. Read it! #thebookoflostfriends #lisawingate #april2020

Wingate writes a moving historical novel of three young women on a journey to find family. Stories of Hannie (a slave) and Lavinia (heir to a destitute plantation) in Louisiana in 1875 and Benny, a teacher in Louisiana in 1987. Told in alternating chapters, this book starts rather slow, but Wingate weaves the storylines together into a book of heartbreak and hope.