THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS
By Lisa Wingate


I have really enjoyed other Lisa Wingate stories, but have had a difficult time getting through this one. Admittedly, timing has so much to do when reading a selection with perhaps difficult
subject matter, which this book does have. I am reading this at the peak of Covid19 outbreak
and can only think about this story as yet another dark time in the history of our country.
Hats off for addressing this in such a creative manner.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me an Advanced Reader Copy in return for a fair review.

If you loved "Before We Were Yours", you will love this new book by Lisa Wingate. One story line take place in 1875 and tells the story of Hannie a young freed slave who while posing as a young man goes along with her former masters two daughters, one Lavinia the daughter of his wife, the second, Juneau Jane the creole daughter of his mistress. The half sisters and Hannie are looking for the girls' father who went Texas and did not return to ensure their inheritance. The second story brings us to 1987 and a young teacher in the same town who is trying to teaching a school that is poorly funded and students who need someone to care. The older story and the more modern one weave together with the help of actual "Lost Friends" advertisements from post civil war paper. Thes ad were people searching for their family members separated by slavery and war. Once again Wingate teaches of time in history that is littles known and does so with rich and sympathetic characters.

Alternating between two main characters and two time periods, Wingate crafts a novel that pulls you in and won't let you go.

Lousiana, 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. Hannie is searching for her family members sold by an unscrupulous relative of her master many years ago. Her Mother gave her and her siblings three blue glass beads so they would know each other if they were freed. Juneau Jane and Lavinia are looking for their father to clarify intentions as to his estate. He disappeared while searching for his wayward son who is always one step ahead of the law. Two young women learn to depend upon each other for survival, especially when the third one is attacked, brutalized and loses her mind.

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. Her students are uninterested in anything academic until Benny involves them in their family history and the cemetery behind her rented house. The townspeople of Augustine, Louisiana, are suspicious of new people and new ideas and not happy to have their family histories of slavery, illegitimate children, and interracial marriages brought to light.

I love Wingate's writing, the individual voices of her characters, her depth of research and the unveiling of a difficult story. Hannie and Benny are such strong women who overcome the hands that they are dealt. Even with all of the hardships, both are willing to risk it all and open their hearts to create the family that they wished they had. I was able to lose myself in this book for two days during this self-isolating/social distancing time.

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Book of Lost Friends” by Lisa Wingate, Ballantine, April 7, 2020

WOW! Lisa Wingate has written an amazing, intriguing, riveting, captivating, and memorial novel. The Genres for this novel are Historical Fiction and Fiction. Lisa Wingate is an amazing storyteller and writer and vividly describes the history, characters, events, and landscape in her novel. There are two timelines in this story. One is in Louisiana in 1875, and the other is in Louisiana in 1987. There are other places that are mentioned in this story. The author describes her dramatic characters as complex, and complicated. There are both good and evil people and events in this story. There are dark secrets that affect generations of people. Both timelines are like pieces of a puzzle and ultimately connect.

The first time-line for this story describes the post Civil War period when some slaves were supposed to own the land that they have worked on, facing opposition from other people. During this time, there is a newspaper that charges 50 cents to an individual for the opportunity to find family and friends, that had been separated. They can write a post about who they are looking for. Three young women, Hannie, Lavina, and Juneau Jane travel to Texas, each looking for something important and dear to their hearts. Hannie wants to find her mother, and family. Both Lavina and Juneau Jane and are searching for their father to determine their inheritance. Along the way, there is the danger of animals, people who take the law in their hands,, bandits, thieves, Indians, soldiers, and the FBI They are facing danger, threats, and death. As they travel, the woman start to write in a book with,people looking for their family and friends.

In 1987, Benny is a new teacher with a diverse student population, and few supplies. The people in the town seem quirky and reluctant to share information with the new teacher. There are deep dark secrets. Benny does find some hidden books and information that will change many of these people’s lives.

I loved everything about this poignant and thought-provoking novel and highly recommend this to readers who enjoy Historical Fiction.

This book like all of her books is good . They feature normal people in difficult circumstances that overcome with overiding sense of hope
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

Wow. This is a story that needed to be written. And yet it was hard to read. A story of slavery, post Civil War reconstruction tangled into modern times. I found it slow going at first but it was worth sticking it out. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

I really liked the idea behind this book and the history lesson it gave. However I really disliked the way it was written, surprising because of how much I liked this author’s previous book. This book was painfully slow, especially for the first half. I would have much rather the author spent more time on what happened between the final chapter and the epilogue. I was so disappointed to see a lack of closure around a number of themes in the book (the land contracts, consequences of what happened to Missy, Juneau Jane’s return, Hannie’s marriage and the reveal of her gender to Gus - and most disappointingly, Benny’s history and her relationship with Nathan, her students, and her employer/school board). I’m disappointed to say I didn’t enjoy this book but have high hopes for this author in the future.

The Book of Lost Friends has become my favorite historical novel and, in fact, one of my favorite books that I've read.  The book includes actual ads that were published in Southern newspapers and read to black congregations by their preachers, searching for relatives of former slaves. The last time many of these people saw their families was in sale pens and auction yards, as they were being sold off to new owners, one or two at a time, dividing families forever, with no way of ever finding each other again. The words are so heartbreaking, so heartfelt, and some of the ads in the book even tell of family members that has been reunited through the ads.

I read this book with the Traveling Sisters, more specifically, Mary Beth, of the TS because others are still reading it, and we discussed that all the brutality and cruelty of man is evident in a manner that doesn't stop us in our tracks. By reading the words of the actual people who lived as slaves and went through being bought, sold, traded, beaten, etc. all of it is so obvious but not gratuitous and also not so in your face you can't keep going. It's real, it happened, you feel the heartbreak of the people who are looking for their families, hoping for news, even if it's bad. Such strong people, white, black, Indian, mixed, being treated badly or treating each other badly.

The 1875 portion of the book follows former slave Hannie, white Missy, whose family had owned Hannie for her entire life, and Juneau Jane, Missy's illegitimate free-born Creole half-sister. Missy and Juneau Jane's father has disappeared and the girls need to establish their claims to their inheritance before Missy's uncles can steal their inheritance from them. When the two girls steal off on a dangerous journey that is a mystery to Hannie, she disguises herself as the wagon driver so she can make sure she doesn't lose her claim to what she's earned as an indentured servant.

In the 1987 portion of the story, young teacher Benedetta is tasked with teaching the kids of Augustine, LA, the poor kids that the rich side of town has neglected, forgotten, and expects to never amount to anything. In fact, these kids believe they will never amount to anything and have never even thought of trying to dig out of the hole of their poverty. Benny is renting a house on the land that belongs to the former plantation of Missy and Juneau Jane's father and she discovers papers that show how these children have a past and a legacy to live up to and to remember.

The book starts very slowly but I think the built up and the background is worth the time it takes to show the link of the two timelines, to bring things together. If there was anything more I'd like from the book, it would be that we got to follow Hannie, Juneau Jane, and Hannie's friend Gus, into the years after the book ended. I didn't want to leave these strong, amazing, people. Hannie and Juneau Jane, while fighting to stay alive, also bring the Book of Lost Friends to all the people they meet. And young Gus vowed to pass on what he learned from Hannie, about her missing people, wherever he went and he was one to never break a promise. 
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

I've been aware of Lisa Wingate's writing for many years, but it wasn't until I picked up a copy of Before We Were Yours in the summer of 2017 that I considered myself a fan. In the almost three years since that day, I've read several of her backlist titles and I'm now completely under her spell. So when I saw she was releasing a new book this spring, I was super excited to review it.

The Book of Lost Friends is a dual timeline novel, moving back and forth between 1987 and 1875, ten years after the end of the war between the states. The book presents an exploration of slavery, of family, and of love, but even more than that, it's the story of four women, each with her own personal struggles, each searching for the truth behind who she is and how she fits into an inhospitable world.

In the 1987 portions of the novel, we focus on Benedetta Silva, a teacher who has just finished college and is working her first job at a school in one of Louisiana's most poverty-stricken regions. It's not where she expected to end up, but it's the only job she's been able to find. She's not afraid of hard work, but the lackluster view of education held by many of the area's residents soon begins to wear on her. Desperate to find a way to engage the hearts and minds of her students, Benny begins digging into the town's history, uncovering many hidden truths along the way and stirring up secrets certain people would rather keep buried forever.

In 1875, our narrator is a former slave named Hannie. She used to belong to one of the richest plantation families in Louisiana, but her former masters have fallen on hard times and their plantation is now pretty much in ruins. Hannie works as a sharecropper and dreams of one day being reunited with her mother and siblings, who were sold years ago. When Lavinia, the daughter of Hannie's former master, unexpectedly returns home followed closely by Juneau Jane, her Creole half-sister, Hannie suspects something is afoot. Normally, she keeps her head down, desperate to escape the notice of the white people who caused her and her family so much pain, but she's determined to find out what happened to those she loves and she's pretty sure Lavinia  and Juneau Jane hold the key to her unanswered questions. Disguising herself as a young boy, Hannie becomes Lavinia's carriage driver, and the three women set out on a dangerous journey across the war-torn south in hopes of having all of their questions answered once and for all.

The novel's title comes from a series of newspaper columns run during the time after the war's end when thousands of newly freed slaves were desperately searching for lost family and friends. I don't want to say too much about how these columns tie into the novel, but I thought potential readers might be interested in the title's origins, especially if you, like me, never knew such columns existed. This is what I love most about historical fiction, the chance to learn things we unfortunately aren't taught in schools.

I've read a ton of historical fiction about the Civil War, but I haven't found nearly as much written about the reconstructionist era. Here, Lisa Wingate brings this piece of history to life, and I was utterly entranced by her descriptions of the way so many lives were altered by the war. Certain passages were very difficult to read, as you might expect given the subject matter, but I never felt the author was trying to shock. Instead, she handles tough subjects with a great deal of sensitivity.

I adore dual timeline novels, but it's not uncommon for one timeline to hold my interest more than the other. I love history, so I'm usually drawn into the sections set in the past and I tend to view the more contemporary portions as a sort of vehicle used to move the story forward. Fortunately though, Ms. Wingate managed to make both stories equally compelling. Hannie and Benny are on very different journeys, but both learn a lot along the way, and so did I.

There's a lot to unpack as you read this book, but the engaging nature of the writing makes that super easy to do. The subject matter is understandably heavy, but the stark beauty of the prose carried me through even the most difficult passages, allowing me to identify with the characters and their various plights. Not everyone is likable, but that's okay. In fact, it adds an extra layer of authenticity to this already excellent story, making The Book of Lost Friends one of my favorite novels of 2020.

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The Book of Lost Friends is told in two timelines -Hannie in 1875 and Benny in 1987. Hannie a freed slave is searching for her lost family, while Benny is a first year teacher in small town Louisiana. The Book of Lost friends is a series of advertisements after the Civil War in which freed slaves are searching for their family members who were separated from each other during slavery. Hannie is not only looking for her own people, but is also helping others to do the same. Benny’s students are hard to reach and ultimately find inspiration in a historical research project where they tell the stories of their ancestors and those buried locally.

Lisa Wingate has the gift of taking an aspect of history such as the Book of Lost Friends and weaving it into a beautiful story. I loved the story of Benny and her students bringing to life the stories of their ancestors and their town. I didn’t connect as well with Hannie’s story but they wove together seamlessly in the end. I enjoyed this historical fiction and thought it told of an aspect of history that many are not familiar with.

While I appreciate the free arc, I found this title slow moving. While I appreciate hearing Hannie's story and that it is based on true historical events it did not hold my attention.

As with Before We Were Yours, Lisa Wingate brings to light an unknown-to-me story from history. The Southwestern Christian Advocate was newspaper published in New Orleans by the Methodist Book Concern. It was distributed to numerous pastors, post offices and subscribers in the south. Post Civil War, people who were separated through slavery and the war could place an advertisement in their Lost Friends column, searching for loved ones.
Ms. Wingate weaves many of the real letters throughout her dual timeline fictional stories. The modern day story, set in 1987, is a story about the love of books, the role of libraries & eduction, and the thrill of uncovering history with stories and making current connections. The post civil war story is a saga of a freed slave searching for her family, facing dire situations, and displaying great courage and humanity along the way.
I loved the Tales from the Underground project undertaken in the 1987 classroom and remember my children doing similar (much smaller, less personal scale) when they were in elementary school. I also adored the fierce bibliophilic theme (comparing someone who refers to books as junk as Neanderthal😂). The trials and tribulations of Hannie, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane in 1875 are harrowing and unimaginable. I appreciated the use of dialect and linguistics which created a deep, realistic setting.
This book is a must for historical fiction buffs and will definitely have you chasing down that Google rabbit hole! Thank you NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for the free review copy!

The Book of Lost Friends is a compelling novel that hooked me from the first pages and didn't let go until the very last words. I'd never heard of the Lost Friends until reading this, but the words of these people searching and hoping to find their loved ones are hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time. We see their stories brought to life as we follow the journey that three incredibly brave women took at a very diffiult time in history, in a dual timeline with a contemporary teacher who guides her students to look at their family roots. This is a book that will stay with you long after the final pages.

Lisa Wingate got the idea for this book from a friend who worked at the Lost Friends data base. The database includes actual letters from former slaves trying to locate family and friends who were sold to different farms or families or gained freedom and left the area. Wingate tells the story through Hannie and Benny. Hannie joins with two other women, her former owner and her half-sister, as they travel to Texas in the late 1800s. Hannie is hoping to find the rest of her extended family who moved there many years before. Move ahead to 1980's Louisiana where Benny teaches at a rural school. She has no idea how to deal with children living in such poverty. A project about the Underground Railroad leads to a Century Chest containing treasures from the past. The project links the present day Louisianans to Hannie's group from the past. In doing so it allows the families to regain some pride in their heritage and allows Benny to reconcile herself with her own past.

Lisa WIngate did a phenomenal amount of research for this book, which was evident in every page. It was not a light or easy book to read, but it was so interesting and moving, reading it was a pleasure. I recommend The Book of Lost Friends to history buffs and to anyone who enjoys reading an exceptional book. I appreciate the opportunity to read the ARC.

"We must speak our stories...there is an old proverb that says, we die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time, when the last person speaks our name. The first death is beyond our control, but the second one we can strive to prevent."

The Book of Lost Friends encourages readers to share stories and speak their truth. A multi-generational tale with strong protagonists, Lisa Wingate pens a episodic journey to reunite what's lost while celebrating what's found.

From Hannie's account as a freed slave during the aftermath of Reconstruction to Benny's plight in 1975 teaching students in rural Louisiana, they are facing pivotal moments to achieve their dreams. Hannie risks freedom to reunite her family while Benny puts her job in jeopardy to have her students succeed.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the early read in exchange for an honest review. Lisa Wingate brilliantly weaves historic events to parallel modern-day affairs. Wingate bring readers along on a journey to reawaken the past while questioning the future. Captivating characters make readers feel part of the adventure. After reading #TheBookofLostFriends, I was inspired to research my family history and unlock my ancestors' secrets.

Thanks to Lisa Wingate, Random House-Ballantine, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of The Book of Lost Friends. The concept of this book — former slaves placing ads in newspapers in order to try to find their relatives — was new to me, and was very interesting, yet heartbreaking. This novel switches between two settings: Civil War-era Louisiana and more modern day (1980’s) Louisiana. Wingate does an excellent job describing both settings with meticulous, realistic detail.

While I enjoyed much of the description and the characters in this book (which are very well developed!) the story itself moved more slowly than I would’ve liked, and I found my interest lagging. Still, I would recommend this novel for those who enjoy historical fiction and for those who loved Wingate’s previous novel, Before We Were Yours.

Oh, people are going to love this. The same people who loved The Secret Life of Bees, The Help, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Before We Were Yours are going to eat this up.

Lisa Wingate leverages her success with the theme of reuniting families into another fascinating story of former enslaved families trying to reconnect after Emancipation. Two stories run parallel: one, set in the 1870s, is of the Gossett family, a mother and nine children, who as slaves were sold off in various places between Louisiana and Texas, and fear they will never see each other again. The second, set in the late 1980s, is of Benny Silva, a first-year teacher trying to find her way as a newcomer in the small, insular town in Louisiana where the Gossetts have roots.

There is history, drawing on real ads from New Orleans' Lost Friends Exhibition, a pair of gentle love stories, and a rueful characterization of a new teacher desperate to get control of a difficult class. There is an adventure quest with a strong Western-genre flavor, a few skeletons in closets, and pretty much all the ingredients you need to cook up a satisfying story that will find lots of readers.

I have to mention that I enjoyed this book coming from a place of white privilege. I don't know if other people will have issues with a white author writing about the Black experience, as in The Help and The Secret Life of Bees. That is not for me to say, but I would be interested in other people's evaluations.

There is some peril and possibly some mild language, but I don't see any reason high school students shouldn't read and enjoy this book too. I am grateful to have received an ARC from NetGalley.

This book was great!! Lisa Wingate is truly a great storyteller. Her books pull you in that you forget where you are.

The Book of Lost Friends
By
Lisa Wingate

(The copy that is being reviewed is an ARC from Net Galley)
This a historical novel and the author brings to life stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, and newly freed slaves who are looking for loved ones.
The main protagonists are Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half-sister. The novel opens with the year 1875 in Louisiana during the period of reconstruction. They head for Texas and they face a perilous journey as the roads are full of soldiers who are fighting a war lost ten years before this period (the Civil war) The other main character is a “modern-day teacher “in the year 1987 and the teacher, a first-year teacher named Benedetta Silva. Her job is subsidized and she is assigned to a poor rural school in Augustine, Louisiana. She is known as Benny in the book, and she cannot grasp the lives of her poverty-stricken students. However, she seems to connect with the students when they do a project based on the graves in a cemetery in the town. The pilgrimage for Hannie who was torn from her mother and siblings before the end of the Civil war, is hoping she can find her family. Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half-sister, is hoping to find information about her inheritance. The format of the book is very interesting at the beginning of each chapter there is an advertisement of freed slaves and broken families in the southern papers hoping to find their lost families. This was an enlightening book for me as I learned a lot about how freed slaves tried to find their families who have been ripped away from each other because of the cruel system of slavery.

The Book of Lost Friends is a historical fiction novel based on real-life post-Civil War newspaper advertisements of former slaves seeking their family members who were forcibly separated over time by slave owners and thieves.

The novel contains alternating chapters between a former slave in 1875, Hannie, and Benny, a schoolteacher in 1987 Louisiana. In the 1875 timeline, Hannie is on a quest to secure the farming rights to her caregiver's land after hearing rumors of their missing former slaveowner's death. Benny is a teacher, new to town, who after failure after failure of connecting with her students discovers a treasure trove of resources to make their history, and imagination, come alive.

This is a book I would recommend to those new to historical fiction because of the ease of understanding the timelines and characters as well as historical accuracy. As a reader of many historical fiction novels, I didn't feel I learned anything new per se, but it was a nice read. I would have liked each of the two stories to have their own book. I didn't feel there was enough commonality to weave them together. Overall, a 3/5 for me.

As a library paraprofessional, I received an advance reader copy from Net Galley.