The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate

Thanks to Lisa Wingate, Random House-Ballantine, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of The Book of Lost Friends. Wingate’s last novel, Before We Were Yours, was wildly popular, so I was anxious to read her new work.

The concept of this book — former slaves placing ads in newspapers in order to try to find their relatives — was new to me, and was very interesting, yet heartbreaking. This novel switches between two settings: Civil War-era Louisiana and more modern day (1980’s) Louisiana. Wingate does an excellent job describing both settings with meticulous, realistic detail.

While I enjoyed much of the description and the characters in this book (which are very well developed!) the story itself moved more slowly than I would’ve liked, and I found my interest lagging. Still, I would recommend this novel for those who enjoy historical fiction and for those who loved Wingate’s previous novel, Before We Were Yours.