This is another unputdownable page-turner by author Lisa Wingate. I absolutely loved this book that was rich in history from the Reconstruction era which featured freed slave 18-year-old Hannie Gossett who ends up on a journey to Texas with pampered plantation heirs Lavina and her Creole half-sister Juneau Jane in search of what happened to their inheritance in 1875 Agusta, Louisiana. This story alternates with 1987 Louisiana and English teacher Benedetta "Benny Silva who comes to Agusta, LA in search of a job that will erase her student loans. Benny's students range from 7th through 12th grade and most of them are not interested in learning. It is a struggle to get them to learn until she stumbles upon an idea to get them interested in doing research on the people who are buried in the old cemetery behind her rented house and the plantation owners. The Gossett family who still live and pretty much own the town do everything they can to stop her from her students' project.
Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC of this fantastic book in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful story based on true facts and records. I felt the beginning was a bit slow, but I stuck with it. Each chapter is begun with an ad from the original Lost Friends newspaper columns. The heartbreaking moments are many, and the realization hits the reader that these things so well related in a fictional setting did indeed take place in our country. Lisa Wingate has brought readers another wonderful story based on true happenings from the past.

#netgalley

Thanks to #netgalley, #RandomHousePublishing, and #BallantineBooks for the opportunity to read and review this fantastic book #TheBookofLostFriends by #LisaWingate
Publication 4/7/2020
This book will touch your heart deeply. The year is 1875 and Hannie Gossett is dreaming of the time before the war when her mother, brothers and sisters are all torn from her and sold on the way to Texas. Fast forward to 1987 when Bennie Silva arrives in a little Louisiana town to start her job teaching at a poor high school.
These two story lines are seamlessly woven together with beautifully written prose. In between each chapter is an ad place in the paper, of someone who is searching for their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters.
You will be changed as Hannie helps the her half sisters search for their father in wild Texas, and Bennie sees the promise in the students who have been put down and made to feel worthless. Excellent book.

Oh. My. Heart. There is so much heartbreak and so much hope in this new novel from Lisa Wingate. She tells the story of a snail mail social network that helped freed slaves find their lost loved ones after the war. An old proverb says: "We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name."

Hannie (1875) and Benny (1987) are both -- in their way--seeking to remember people from the past. Hannie is a freed slave and sharecropper who accompanies the daughters of her former owner to a lawyer's office and finds herself on a journey from Augustine, Louisiana to Austin, Texas. Her travels take her by riverboat, wagon, and train and are filled with peril. Her path brought memories of reading "News of the World" by Paulette Jiles. Her resilience is an inspiration.

Benny is the new English teacher in a classroom full of kids who are merely expected to stay in their seats and out of trouble. The bar is low, but Miss Poo (nicknamed after the pooperoos she keeps on hand to feed the hungry teenage tummies) refuses to stick with status quo. After Granny T visits the classroom to tell them the story of the opening of the Carnegie Library before their time, they are energized to begin seeking out the stories of those who came before. Benny has scars in her past, too. Should they run from the past or learn from it? Benny's story ties the present to the past and brings healing for many.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is heartbreaking in the best way. Each chapter starts off with an ad from the Lost Friends newspaper column. That column ran from the late 1800s to early 1900s..
There's two timelines in this story that are easy to follow. Hattie, a former slave now sharecroppers, and Benedetta a teacher in 1987.
The book goes through their stories, and how they tie together.
I don't have anything but praise for this story. This is the best of historical fiction out there. Releases April 7th!

A special thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an ARC of The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. I had read and enjoyed another of Wingate’s novels, Before We Were Yours, and was excited to dive into another.

I enjoyed Benny’s storyline of being a teacher in Augustine, LA and inspiring her students to research and understand their family and the town’s history. Hannie’s storyline was a bit difficult for me to follow- it felt slightly disjointed and the dialect (although accurate to the time) was hard to follow at times.

I overall enjoyed the story and wanted to keep reading to know what happened, but there were loose ends that I would have liked answers to or more resolution around.

Book starts out slow but picks up the characters were believable wonderful historical fiction book. Liked how the book told the present and went back to the past as it told the story

Searching for family…

“Lost Friends” advertisements appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War as freed slaves desperately tried to find loved ones who had been sold off. In 1875, three young girls from Louisiana set off on a perilous journey to Texas. Two of the girls are financially desperate and in search of their inheritance and the third is looking for her long lost family and helping others do the same. The present-day timeline takes place in Lousiana in 1987 as a young and inexperienced teacher lands her first job in a poor, rural community. Over the course of the year, she discovers the story of the three girls from 1875 and their connection to her current students.

Thanks #netgalley #randomhouse @ballantine for granting my request for a free e-ARC of #thebookoflostfriends. All opinions are my own.

Sometimes in dual timeline stories, I’m more engaged with one more than the other. This is what happened in The Book of Lost Friends. Surprisingly, it was the present-day timeline which was the most engaging for me. As a teacher, I love reading about a young and inexperienced teacher working in a poor community and an under-resourced school with the most challenging students. Can she make a difference? Can she find the resources? Can she engage them in learning? Can she gain their trust? Can she build relationships? All of these questions fascinate me!

Readers can trust Lisa Wingate to present a well-written and well-researched story as she imagines the life of a girl who is looking for her family after the Civil War and a teacher in the present-day rural Louisianna. If you’ve read Before We Were Yours, you know that Wingate cares deeply about the people in her stories and reuniting families. I love that each chapter in The Book of Lost Friends begins with an actual letter (that was published in the newspaper) from a person searching for loved ones. It adds poignancy, urgency, and authenticity to this compelling story and brings history to life. I think the first part of the story builds slowly but is still unputdownable. I enjoy learning about a part of history that I’ve never known about before. The main characters are well-drawn, determined, feisty, believable, and likable.

Lisa Wingate has a heart for teaching and teachers (see bio) which is an important element in this story. I loved the 1987 timeline and the character of Bennie who puts her heart and soul into connecting with her most challenging students. She uses history from the past (1875 storyline) to excite her students about learning. The parts where she builds trust with the students and excites them about learning are my favorite parts of the book.

“These kids make me feel that I have a purpose … that getting up and going to work every day matters.”

“Stories change people. History, real history, helps people understand each other, see each other from the inside out.”

For me, I feel like the present-day timeline is a little more straightforward and easier to follow than the 1875 timeline. The story is unputdownable and evenly paced as the characters in both timelines struggle to overcome obstacles. In each timeline, the ending is satisfactory and heartfelt.

Thoughtful themes in The Book of Lost Friends include friendship, the search for family, connecting with and motivating challenging students, determination, grit, survival, community, and helping others.

I highly recommend The Book of Lost Friends for fans of compelling, well-researched, and well-written historical fiction; for readers who appreciate independent-minded, determined, and feisty characters; for teachers; and for book clubs.

The Book of Lost Friends is a moving story about Hannie Gossett's life in the 1870's and Benny's Silva's life in 1987. Soon the reader discovers how these two women's lives are intertwined. Hannie finds herself on a journey with her masters daughter, ,Lavinia Gossett and his other daughter, Juneau Jane Gossett who was born on the wrong side of the blanket. These three ladies are all on a mission to find their daddy and master. This journey is dangerous and soon the three are not sure that the price they must pay is truly worth the results they achieve.
Benny is a first year teacher soon to find out that the sweet small town she thinks she has moved to isn't as sweet as she thought. Read The Book of Lost Friends to find out how these amazing women are all connected.

Another wonderful story by Lisa Wingate about historical events that most do not know about. It is told through the eyes of Hannie, a former slave and share cropper and Bennie, a new teacher who comes to the town where Hannie once lived to try and motivate a group of disadvantaged and disinterested students. As she learns more about their community she tries to motivate them by getting them to learn about their town's past and their ancestors who lived there before them, and as they start to warm up to her ideas, Bennie learns so much more about their ancestor's plight- about families torn apart by slavery and attempts to bring many back together after emancipation. This research eventually brings the details of Hannie's life into their time where her ties to current citizens, even one particular student, come to light. This is a very moving and enlightening story and one well worth telling.

As a whole, this is my favorite Lisa Wingate book. Both the tales of Hannie, the young slave girl and Benny, the modern teacher, were well written and very captivating. This is a sad story on both accounts, with neither being very flattering of the human race in general. I would have given the book 4 stars or possibly even 5 if it had not been for the ending. Throughout the story Benny hinted at some deep dark secret but never gave any hints as to what it might be or how it might be related to the story. When it is revealed at the end it seems like an afterthought, as if the author just remembered to reveal it. It was extremely random and not really tied into the story, but more of a nod to Wingate’s previous books. I also felt the culmination of the school children’s historical project was rushed and not completely satisfying. Things were not neatly tied up in the end, such as Nathan’s relationship with his brothers (I really expected something to come of his chance meeting with them at the restaurant) and their family connections with some of the school children. I was very disappointed in the end only and would still say this book is very much worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley for an advance read copy.

I feel really guilty not enjoying this book because I asked for this arc specifically since this is the same author who wrote Before We Were Yours (which I have still yet to read). Even though I find stories set during this time period interesting, whenever I start reading about them I get bored. Objectively, this book was not boring. But every single time I would pick it up I would immediately want to start reading something else.

Part of my issue with reading this book is how it was written. This book is split into two POV’s, and the POV taking place during 1875 was written the same way people spoke during that time. I’m starting to realize that I would rather listen to these sections as an audiobook since I spent more time trying to understand what the character was saying than I did the actual story. There was also an unnecessary romance that didn’t really take up a lot of space in the story but was still distracting enough. Which is a shame because the way the author incorporated real-life historical events and groups of people into the story was very well done.

I honestly spent half the book just skimming it because I wanted to get it over with. This book was not bad, it just was not for me. Ultimately, I wish I had listened to this as an audiobook because of the writing style and I think there were certain details, such as the romance, that should have been left out.

2/5

I was excited to read this after really enjoying Wingate's Before We Were Yours and I wasn't disappointed! A truly unique, heartbreaking, and fascinating piece of history put to light in a careful and loving way. I really enjoyed how she wove both the past and present together in subtle but significant ways.

In "The Book of Lost Friends," Lisa Wingate has once again presented us with a meticulously researched book of historical fiction that will linger with you long after you turn the last page. The story takes place between two time periods: post civil war Louisiana and Texas in 1875 and Augustine, Louisiana during 1987. Wingate's novel is a sobering account of family displacement, betrayal and greed years after the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. We follow a trio of unlikely travel companions as they trek down Mr. Gossett, the owner of a Louisiana plantation, who has ties to the three girls.

Missy Lavinia, the daughter of Mr. Gossett, is accompanied by her half-sister, Juneau Jane, who is his illegitimate daughter. Both of the young women are fighting each other for their rightful inheritance. Rounding out the trio is Hannie Gossett, who is an emancipated slave still living on the plantation as a sharecropper. She wants to ensure her people get a plot of land in exchange for working the land for ten years. The three young women face immeasurable dangers as their long, arduous journey takes them through Louisiana and ultimately Texas.

Alternating with this narrative is the story of Benny Silva who lands a high school teaching job in the languorous town of Augustine, Louisiana in 1987. Benny is desperate to connect with her students, but many of them come from underprivileged homes where school is not the number one priority. As Benny grapples with finding creative ways to teach, she stumbles across a trove of historical data pertaining to the town on the property she is renting. This discovery ignites her classrooms as her students conduct research on the town and track down information on their ancestors for their "living History" projects.

Interspersed between each chapter, are actual Lost Friends ads that were originally published in the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a widely distributed newspaper in the southern United States. From its inception in 1877, it was a medium for African Americans to search for loved ones after slavery was abolished. Although the ads unfold in fragments between the two narratives, it is a powerful reminder of our egregious racial history and is at the core of the book.

Though there are many moments of despair, what emerges is the strength of women who persevere in their unabashed commitment to follow through on their individual quests.. The young women in this book: Hannie, Missy Lavinia, Juneau Jane and Benny are constantly propelled by a powerful inner determination to succeed despite obstacles thrown their way. These are lessons we can all learn from.

This book is another masterpiece by Lisa Wingate. Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books and Lisa Wingate for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m so happy that I received this e-galley from NetGalley because I really enjoyed her last book. This book did not disappoint. Told from two perspectives at different times in history this book tells the story of Hannie, a freed slave who remains as a sharecropper on the plantation where she grew up and Benny, the new English teacher at a run down, underfunded Louisiana school where all of efforts to get through to the students fail. As the two stories developed, I was drawn in and wanted to see how Hannie’s story played a role in Benny’s story. The Book of Lost Friends was an important part of Hannie’s story but I couldn’t figure out why it would it would mean anything to Benny. It all comes together in the end. Another great historical novel by Lisa Wingate which is sure to be a bestseller.

Hannie Gossett and Benedetta (Benny) Silva lived one hundred years apart, but their stories became intertwined as a result of an research project for the English classes Benny taught in an Augustine, Louisiana middle school and.high school. Hannie, a freed teenage slave, finds herself on a mission to protect the two teenage daughters of her former master. As the three girls make their way across dangerous post-Civil War Texas, they discover the Lost Friends ads in a little newspaper called the Southwestern. Inspired by this, the girls develop their own Book of Lost Friends. Hannie, who is on her own quest for the family separated from her as a child, takes this project to heart. Fast foward over one hundred years later to Benny Silva's living history project, in which some reluctant secondary students, not used to caring about education, find themselves caught up in some intriguing research tracing their family roots. The author weaves the two plot lines together ingeniously, crafting a tale of loss, redemption, and having the courage to learn from the past. This compelling book would be an excellent addition to any middle school or high school library's historical fiction collection.

"Stories change people. History, real history, helps people understand each other ..." Such is the power of this double tracked, totally immersive novel by Lisa Wingate. Based on real ads placed in a widely distributed newspaper that circulated following the Civil War in which families that had been ripped apart tried to reconnect, it is told in two timeframes, we are introduced to Hanny Gossett in 1875, Benny Silva, 1987. And both women are brought remarkably to life. Wingate admits to taking a little license with the timing, but it is only to tighten the prose flow. Hanny finds herself on a journey of discovery with two women from the plantation where she was a member of a sharecropping family. That Era was far more brutal than we learned from history books, and Wingate does a great job of reconstructing the Reconstruction. One hundred years later, Benny, who has many secrets of her own but has a tremendous store of empathy and a huge heart, gets under the skin of her charges in an impoverished, underprivileged school by setting a challenge of discovery to her classes. Not my usual choice for material, but I loved every twist and turn, fell in love with these two women, was immersed in both stories, and will definitely go back and read her other works.

Lisa Wingate is an author whose new book should fly into your “cart” without even reading the description. But when the description is revealed, “the hand has been dealt;” it’s a winner. Here’s a brief description from Lisa’s page:

“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.

“Sad thing when stories die for the lack of listenin’ ears.” Granny T

The story of Hannie, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane bundles the reader off into directions and paths that are difficult for a conscientious reader to tolerate; much less acknowledge an awareness of family and community involvement in similar situations, either by stories handed down from the 1870’s or from a primary source in the 1980’s. In either case, this dual timeline between the three young girls on their travels through Texas in 1875 and the “tales of a teacher” in rural south Louisiana, 1987. will keep readers wide eyed and awake; pondering for days how Lisa Wingate has woven such a “saga of sadness” into a ‘jump for joy” celebration for her readers.

The idea for book of lost friends actually sprang from a book lover. This avid reader, a volunteer with the Historic New Orleans Collection, was entering database information in order to preserve the history of the “Lost Friends” column. These were ads, published in the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a Methodist newspaper. The paper went to preachers, post offices, and subscription holders. Preachers read the ads from the pulpit, hoping families separated before “the Freedom” could be rejoined. After reading LW’s Before We Were Yours, this New Orleans’ book lover thought this was another, similar, piece of history.

As a “girl from south Louisiana” and a teacher, this novel had me rooting for Hannie, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane, and cheering for Benny. First year teacher, Benny was determined to make inroads into the community, the school board and most importantly to finding the keys to students’ learning that had been locked for years behind bars of prejudice: “no expectations, no encouragement, neglect, & abuse.” Benny wants her students to “see that there is no faster way to change your circumstance than to open a great book.”

So to all Grateful Reader followers: Open The Book of Lost Friends, and be changed.

Wingate has found another niche: writing emotional fiction based on actual events! The Book of Lost Friends was an exceptional read, though a little slow to start. The book accomplished something that few book can do to me, make me research the topic! I was so intrigued that I kept my reading going. Well done!

A heartbreaking novel based on real events - The Book of Lost Friends is split between two timelines - Post Civil War America and modern day. In the post Civil War timeline, we follow three women on the search for their families. They come upon a church, papered with newspaper - which is, in turn, the history of many slaves lives.

In modern day, an inexperienced teacher teaches her students about the "Lost Friends" newspaper and send her students on a trajectory into their own family history.

This book is heartfelt and touching. It's taking a painful part of American History and adding more heart and care.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.