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Book Summary and Reviews of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Before We Were Yours

A Novel

by Lisa Wingate

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Jun 2017, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

For readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale comes a "thought-provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart ... based on a notorious true-life scandal."

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.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Before We Were Yours alternates between the historical story of the Foss Children and the modern-day story of Avery Stafford. Did you have a favorite between these storylines? Which one and why?
  2. Many families have been touched in some way by adoption and foster care. Is adoption or foster care in your family history? If so, how did that affect your thoughts about the journey of the Foss children and about Avery's excavation of her family history?
  3. When the sisters were initially reunited, they decided to keep their history to themselves rather than telling their families. Do you agree or disagree with this decision? What do you think the implications would have been if they had gone public? Do you think family secrets should remain ...
Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

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What is your book club reading in 2025?
Looks like a good list. Thanks for sharing. We have ours chosen until June of 2025 - we choose the list in May of each year. The books are from June this year until May next year - we all submit titles, assign the titles numbers, and pull numbers from a hat. We still have quite a few titles left....
-Elizabeth

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A [story] of a family lost and found ... a poignant, engrossing tale about sibling love and the toll of secrets." - People

"Sure to be one of the most compelling books you pick up this year... . Wingate is a master-storyteller, and you'll find yourself pulled along as she reveals the wake of terror and heartache that is Georgia Tann's legacy." - Parade

"One of the year's best books ... It is impossible not to get swept up in this near-perfect novel." - The Huffington Post

"Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation's history and weaves a tale of enduring power...Rill's utterly singular voice will stay with you long after the last page is turned, as will Wingate's courage to follow her anywhere...Vivid and affecting." - Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of Circling the Sun

"A powerful tale of family, of sisters, of secrets kept and secrets shared. I absolutely loved this book. I'm still basking in the afterglow, in shock at the true-crime elements, in awe at the journey of these characters who seem to have immortal souls." - Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

This information about Before We Were Yours was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

ann

interesting subject
Best book I've read in a while. Depressing but great subject, well done plot and characters, told through the perspective of two very believable characters. stuck to the story without any side societal comments, politics, or other nonsense so prevalent in today's books. and the way the author connected everything at the end was very well done and realistic. I won't elaborate as it would ruin the story for a new reader.

Cathryn Conroy

A Tragic, Riveting Tale Based on Historical Facts
Although it's very sloooow in getting started (Hang in there! It's worth it!), this becomes a can't-put-it-down book that tells a heartbreaking tale based on historical facts. From the 1920s to 1950 in Tennessee, wealthy couples were able to adopt babies and children who had been taken from poor families--from trickery to outright kidnapping--in a scheme that essentially put those children up for sale. Even more tragically, while awaiting adoption, the children who were under the auspices of the Tennessee Children's Home Society were housed in horrific conditions, including being routinely fed bug-infested food, beaten and placed in solitary confinement, sexually abused and even murdered.

Written by Lisa Wingate, the book is structured as two stories in one, alternating chapter by chapter. The present day story focuses on Avery Stafford, an attorney and daughter of a U.S. senator from South Carolina, who is trying to uncover the secrets of her family that she traces back to the Tennessee Children's Home Society. The other part of the book takes place in 1939 during the Great Depression and focuses on Rill Foss, a child who lives with her parents and siblings on a shanty boat on the Mississippi River, and is terrifyingly kidnapped with her sisters and brother and sent to live at a notorious Memphis boarding facility that is part of the Tennessee Children's Home Society while awaiting adoption.

This novel is compelling and eventually becomes a real page-turner as it explores what it means to be a family, as well as the power of secrets--even those decades in the past--to unravel and hurt us or empower us and make us stronger.

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Author Information

Lisa Wingate Author Biography

Lisa Wingate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours, which remained on the bestseller list for fifty-four weeks in hardcover and has sold over 2 million copies. She has penned over thirty novels and coauthored a nonfiction book, Before and After with Judy Christie. Her award-winning works have been selected for state and community One Book reads throughout the country, have been published in over forty languages, and have appeared on bestseller lists worldwide.

The group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa and six others as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Booklist summed up her work by saying, "Lisa Wingate...

... Full Biography
Link to Lisa Wingate's Website

Other books by Lisa Wingate at BookBrowse
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