Before We Were Yours
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat until their father rushes their mother to the hospital one stormy night and strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar, the Foss children are thrown into the Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage and assured they will soon be returned to their parents, but they quickly face a darker reality under the facility’s cruel director as Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together.
Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Avery Stafford, born into wealth and a successful federal prosecutor with a fiancé and wedding planned, returns home to help her father during a health crisis. A chance encounter prompts uncomfortable questions and sends her on a search through her family’s long-hidden history that ties to the real-life scandal surrounding Georgia Tann and stolen children.
Pick a format, then compare retailer prices. The main button points to the preferred option for the selected format.
Book details
- Publisher
- Ballantine Books
- Publication date
- May 21, 2019
- Print length
- 384 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 0425284700
Biographical + Genre Fiction + Historical
What to Know Before Reading Before We Were Yours
The description focuses on two linked timelines: Rill Foss’s abduction and life inside a Tennessee orphanage, and Avery Stafford’s present-day inquiry into her family’s past. Much of the setup centers on family relationships, danger, and the moral and legal consequences of a historical adoption scandal tied to Georgia Tann. The book appears to balance immediate survival and sibling bonds with a contemporary search for answers about identity and inheritance. This may appeal more to someone interested in historical fiction grounded in real events and personal investigation.
Join the Reader List
Join bks.social’s reader list for book recommendations, reader updates, featured titles, and occasional community news. No noise. Just the important things.
About the author
Lisa Wingate
Join the book lovers community
Continue the conversation in the Book Hub for Before We Were Yours
Visit bks.social’s Book Hub for reader discussions, reviews, posts, quotes, questions, reading activity, related books, and G-NRIS story intelligence.