I Know I Am Jumping the Gun But I Had To Tell You About Lisa Wingate’s THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS

THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate

Several years ago I was sent an advanced reading copy of a book titled BEFORE WE WERE YOURS. The author was a woman named Lisa Wingate. I had no prior information about this book and I was not aware of Lisa Wingate in any way. I set the book aside into the stack of might read someday but not likely. Still something kept drawing me back to that book and finally I picked it up and read the first few pages. I was hooked, and apparently so was the rest of the world as that novel made top ten lists week after week.

A few weeks ago another book came my way and it is titled THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS. It will not be released to the public until April 7. It is Lisa Wingate’s latest novel. Generally I do not read a book until a week or so before its release. I want my review to be fresh when the book becomes available for all to read. So I put the book beside my bed but did not start it.

Once again the book kept calling to me. By this time I definitely knew who Lisa Wingate is and I am a strong believer in the vastness of her talent. I knew even if the book did not equal BEFORE WE WERE YOURS it had to be a worthwhile reading experience. So last night I finished THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS. Now I have to jump the gun and tell you all about it.

BEFORE WE WERE YOURS and THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS are literary cousins. The both deal with loss of family and the search to belong. THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS tells a story on two levels. One story is about a freed slave named Hannie who lives in 1875. The other is about a teacher named Benny who lives in 1987. Hannie’s story starts in Augustine, Louisiana but moves across the country to Texas. Benny’s story stays in Augustine.

Hannie’s life is dedicated to finding her family which was separated by slavery. Benny is a teacher in a depressed area of the South and her goal is to give her students a sense of history by helping them learn of their ancestors. It is a book of one woman reaching forward and another reaching back.

One of Wingate’s major talents is her ability to give her stories location, location, location. Through her words we live on a plantation in Louisiana; we go by riverboat to other cities and stops on the trip to Texas; we jostle our way with a wagon train through fairly primitive lands. Her words are immersive. The reader is there to share the toil and exhaustion, the fear and the excitement, the love and the loss.

And while immersing us in the locations Wingate also gives us the richest kind of characters to share the journey. You will meet heroic women fighting for their place in the world. You will meet heroic women trying to create a better world. And entering their lives are men who help and men who hinder. Women who do this are also on display.

In the 1875 story the focus is on Hannie’s adventures. In the 1987 story the focus is on Benny’s situations. Chapters alternate between the two time periods, each drawing you in and not wanting to let you loose. This way of writing the book is not a distraction as it has been in other books I have read, but is rather an enhancement of both sides of the plot.

For hours I lived within the confines of this book but now that it is over I find I can not forget it. It has inspired me to want to find my “lost” friends and my “lost” family members. I think that was Lisa Wingate’s intent and she has certainly succeeded.

THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS is another major writing accomplishment for Lisa Wingate. She has definitely proven she is not a one trick pony. She is one of the brightest lights in the literary world today.

So get busy and order your copy of THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS and then spend the next few weeks anticipating how good it is going to be – cause it is!

THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS is published by Ballantine Books. It contains 400 pages and sells for $28.00.

Jackie K Cooper

www.jackiekcooper.com