The Book of Lost Friends: A Novel

Benny is a newly graduated school teacher in a poor school in Louisiana. She lives in a falling down house with a cemetery as a neighbor and no friends. Her students come to school hungry and some come sporadically. She is trying her hardest to get them interest in literature while scouring the nearby mansion for books for a classroom library.Alternate chapters are 100 years in the past. The story of Hattie, a slave girl whose family was sold off when they were taken by her “Masters” nephew to Texas for safety, her being the only one rescued from Jen Loach. She was returned to the Louisiana plantation and when emancipated was working her 10 years towards freedom, when “Master” disappeared during a search for his no good son. “Master’s” legitimate and illegitimate daughters fell afoul of a man called Marsten, and Hattie, who had posed as a boy to drive them to a meeting, took it upon herself to rescue them and then proceed with them into Texas to complete their quest.Eventually the two stories commingle with an interesting conclusion.

Not what I was expecting. Usually her books are awesome but this didn't ring the bell.

If you are into history and mysteries than this is the book for you. I was caught up by the second page and couldn't put it down. Even had my Kindle with me while I was waiting to go into surgery. Hattie's and Benny's stories combined grab you and compel you to continue reading.It makes you want to start to discovering your family history.

Lisa Wingate is an amazingly brilliant writer. This book invokes some emotions,not the least of which is anger and frustration. But also elation and joy when Hattie finds her family and the children in the 80’s have a teacher who truly cares about them. I love all of Lisa’s books but this one was very special.

The power of names. Names taken away during enslavement, the last piece of humanity stolen. Perseverance. This is all woven beautifully in this masterpiece of Wingate's. She even beautifully writes in a different voice for each of her main characters. And delivers a powerful message that makes us truly understand and embrace and ugly yet important truth of our history. A must read.

Really enjoyed this book!

First of all, I abhor time-flip books. The reader ends up with twice as many characters to keep up with, and two completely different story-lines to attempt to follow without getting overwhelmed. That's just my opinion, of course. The post Civil War story with Hannie as the main character was interesting and informative, albeit depressing much of the time. Also, there was a conclusion to her story. The modern era story of Bennie was less interesting for me, and I was shocked to get to the end of the novel and find her story just stopped abruptly. That is SO annoying! Is there supposed to be a sequel in the works? The reader is left hanging, with the introduction of a new plot thread in the last paragraph...but that's it. The end. I can't say I'm glad I spent hours reading this novel, especially with the incomplete story frustrating me on the last page.

I could not put this book down. What a fantastic work. The author artfully wove the story together from two separate time periods. Thank you to the author for the research that went into writing this story to carefully and accurately represent the different time periods. And, for telling the story to begin with, to bring awareness and knowledge of the Lost Friends advertisements and time period and circumstances for when they were written.

Loved it, good book group read

I found this story fascinating... the Book of Friends is a heart wrenching reminder of a very sad part of worldwide history. But let’s not forget that slavery still exists even in 2021!!!

Suspenseful. I liked going from present to past times. Even the ending was a surprise about the narrator's life and I wanted it to continue on to see how her relationship with the new male character in her life would go.

This novel switchesbetween the two story lines with each new chapter , a former slave’s journey and near death experiences to find relatives sold away before emancipation, and a teacher’s struggle to inspire her unruly class in 1980s Louisiana by getting them interested in their past.It’s a great premise and the author is an impressive writer. Personally though, I found the book overly long and at times I felt quite disconnected from the story.The ending was brief, including the modern protagonist’s back story which seemed almost like an afterthought.Before each chapter is an extract from the ‘Southwestern’ where former slaves posted details of relatives sold away which would be read out in African American churches, a sobering reminder of the enduring pain and evil of slavery even after it was abolished. So many must never have found parents or siblings they were so brutally parted from

Schnelle Lieferung. Guten Zustand.