Here is a new book that was just released this year. The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is a historical fiction novel which jumps back and forth between two timelines, one in the past and one in the present. In the year 1875, three young women are in search of their supposed inheritance. They begin their journey in rural Louisiana and travel all the way to Texas searching for one man who is the father of two of the women. It is possible he is dead and if he is, than they need to find his paperwork saying who gets his plantation and fortune. While traveling, the women find newspaper articles titled Lost Friends written by former slaves looking for their lost family members. One of the women has been looking for her family for quite some time and is excited to discover these articles. The women create a book of lost friends made up of all the articles they find. Whenever they meet an African American looking for lost family, they add a new record of a lost friend. Unfortunately, certain men do not want the women to succeed in their search and will stop at nothing to take the women out.
Jump forward to 1978 and Benny Silva is starting her first year as a teacher in the same rural Louisiana town. She begins her first day with excitement but soon becomes discouraged by the unwelcoming community and by the kids who have no interest in her class. The teenagers see no need for her English class and periodically cut up in class and disrespect Benny. Yet Benny doesn't give up and soon finds ways to get her students interested in English. She begins to learn more about the local history of the town and shares it with her class much to their delight. One source is the book of lost friends and the students love it. Yet not all the adults are on board with Benny's nontraditional curriculum and some try to force her to stop her new style of teaching.
I enjoyed this book greatly and found it to be a fast read. The two stories parallel each other and create a unique narrative that demonstrates how the past directly affects the present. Little bits of information from the past would appear in the modern timeline, creating one connected story. At times the jumping back and forth between the two timelines was a bit confusing and I sometimes struggled to remember what was happening in each timeline. Historically, this book was very accurate and the author does a great job of creating unique voices that portray the time period extremely well. I highly recommend this novel to readers who enjoy historical fiction.
~Abigail C.
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