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FROM SONYA:
"At the very least, we must tell our stories, mustn't we? Speak the names? You know, there's 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."
I have been a Lisa Wingate fan for a number of years. I have read most of her work except for a few of her older publications. Every time I read her books, I am completely drawn into the stories and characters portrayed in the pages.
Lisa creates deep, meaningful stories that make you want to continue following the characters' lives for years to come.
The Book of Lost Friends is no exception. It brings to life startling stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in the Southern newspapers after the Civil Ware, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away.
The story is set in Louisiana and follows the lives of two women. The first is Hannie, a freed slave who is trying to make a life for herself after the war. And Benny, a teacher, who is living over 100 years later in the same community.
Their lives collide in an unusual way, as they each seek truth and fight for the lives of those around them.
I enjoy books based on historical events or people, so this story fits perfectly in that category. The story itself is fictional, however, some of the people and also the basis for the story are true.
While I genuinely enjoyed the story, it was also sobering to again read of this time in our history. A time of families being torn apart, the horrors of slavery, and of lost people. It made me think of other dark times in our history like the Holocaust, where so many people were torn from each other and so many names were lost, and also the history we are making today with so many lost babies...so many lost names.
FROM THE BOOK:
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.
MY RATING: ☆☆☆☆☆
☆ star = highly disliked & probably didn't finish.
☆☆ stars = wouldn't recommend.
☆☆☆ stars = mostly good but may have some concerns.
☆☆☆☆stars = very good.
☆☆☆☆☆ stars = reserved for my absolute favorite books.
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