Today, I am featuring Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. I'm sure you have either seen the movie or read the book Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford and like me you always wondered how Joan Crawford was able to adopt two children. I wondered that for years. I had no idea who Georgia Tann was and what a huge piece of the puzzle she'd be within the history of stolen babies and black market baby selling. Being an adopted child I was both touched and outraged at what Georgia Tann did to children and families. Before We Were Yours tore at my heart and made me so grateful for being a legal, private adoption.
About the book:
Two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.
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 that the truth is much darker. 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 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—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.
About Lisa Wingate:
Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the bestselling author of more than twenty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her work was honored by the Americans for More Civility for promoting greater kindness and civility in American life. Lisa and her family live among the tall pines in the Ouichita Mountains.
Ms. Wingate has an upcoming sequel to Before We Were Yours titled Before and After . I am anxious to read this book which is stories from the children affected by Georgia Tann's cruelty!
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN . . . What book is most memorable to you?
TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS. . .
2 comments:
I loved this book as well! This was the first I heard of Georgia Tann and it's so sad how much of the story is really based on history.
It was the first for me, too! It's really horrible to see how something as beautiful as adoption can be turned as ugly as she made it!
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