Before We Were Yours Before We Were Yours

Before We Were Yours

A Novel

    • 4.6 • 8.1K Ratings
    • $8.99
    • $8.99

Publisher Description

THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—Over two million copies sold! A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

“Poignant, engrossing.”—People • “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power.”—Paula McLain


Memphis, 1939.
Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017Winner of the Southern Book PrizeIf All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection

This edition includes a new essay by the author about shantyboat life.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2017
June 6
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
352
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
7.8
MB

Customer Reviews

StudioCity42 ,

Terrific book

I literally could not put it down. Truly magical and brilliant writing.

yldsmile ,

Beautifully written history we should all know about

I thought I would be reading an intriguing novel of loss, sorrow, and reunited sisters with historical context, I got that, but what I didn't know is I would learn of real horrors that befell thousands of children and parents in Tennessee and beyond over the course of 25 years at the hand of Georgia Tann. This is a story that had to be told in a fact-based novel to spread awareness of the baby selling and theft that went on for so long in our "free" country. Lisa Wingate does a beautiful job bringing each character to life, no matter the era or age as she moves from 1940s to present.. The mystery introduced in the first pages is slowly brought to clarity in a lovely story that brings so much sweet to a bitter story of loss, abuse, unconditional love and the true power of the human spirit. High praise for Wingate for having the courage to tell this story, when so many who it was written about could not.

Ava baby88 ,

Tears

This was a book knowing that this was actually happening

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