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 … 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 2017 • Winner of the Southern Book Prize • If All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection
“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
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This book really touched me. I can’t imagine what those children must have seen and lived through. Even though this is a fictional story of a true event, it brings to life only a small picture of what they lived through. And yet…it lifts you up and let’s you see the sweetness of life and love and bond that sisters share. I highly suggest this book to everyone who needs a good story…
Before We Were Yours is an interesting, informative book. Sometimes I thought it was a little too realistic. It was eye-opening regarding the most sensitive subject of orphans, adoption and all the details that are part of that scenario during the 1920s-30s.
Great fictional book about some real terrible people that stole children away from parents and sold to others for adoption.
This book is written in two parts, past and present. The past is about the horrors of children during the depression who were in an orphanage run by a sinister woman. The present about a woman who is discovering her grandmother was one of these children. The past is compelling but the present story is nauseatingly trite.
Best book I have read this year! Based on a real-life villain in the 1930’s who stole poor children and sold them to people desperate to have a child. This novel revolves around one fictional family of children who struggle to stay together in spite of separation from parents and maltreatment by the orphan home where they were originally placed.