Before We Were Yours: A Novel

THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—Over two million copies sold! a replacement York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

“Poignant, engrossing.”—People • “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of putting up with power.”—Paula McLain

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive effectively. Wrenched from all that's familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they're going to soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to stay her sisters and brother together during a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to possess 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 assist her father in weather a health crisis, an opportunity encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to require a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one among 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 everywhere the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, albeit the paths we take can cause many places, the guts never forgets where we belong.

Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017 • Winner of the Southern Book Prize • If All Arkansas Read an equivalent Book Selection

This edition includes a replacement essay by the author about shantyboat life.