A friend recommended this book to me and I felt sure I would love it. Instead I just "liked" it. It's a slow read, but it brings to life a different world in vivid detail. And its depiction of the struggles of a broken family to stay together is truly haunting.

Before we were yours by Lisa Wingate

In 1930s Memphis, a family living in comfortable poverty are split up by do-gooders, their children sent to a Tennessee Children’s home where they are prepared to be “sold” to eager (rich) adoptive parents. The novel is based on real records and presents a stark image of “doing good” gone wrong.

In the present day, a privileged young woman finds herself drawn to a total stranger in a chance encounter. Choosing to research where the stranger comes from, she uncovers a past that just might change everything.

The two timelines of this novel stay separate for a large part of this slow-reading book, leaving reader and protagonist alike to guess at what part each story might play within the other. Protagonist Aiken struggles to determine whether comfort or truth are more important in relationships. Those around her might try to dissuade her from rocking the boat. Meanwhile the reader is drawn into recognition of dark events in America’s recent past.