NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a
dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the
post–Civil War South and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital
connection to her students’ lives.An absorbing historical . . . enthralling.”—Library
JournalBestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual Lost
Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War as newly
freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away.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.
