Joseph Sciuto's Reviews > Before We Were Yours

Lisa Wingate's, "Before We Were Yours," is an amazingly structured novel which reminds one of some of the very best Hitchcock movies. She reaches intensely, emotional peaks and then gives the reader just enough down time to catch one's breathe before starting another intensely emotional journey. It is superbly written with a cast of unforgettable characters.

It is largely based on the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an orphanage, run by the brutal, real life Georgia Tann during the 1930's and 1940's. The organization, along with its workers, steal young children from impoverished families. In this book a family of five children living on the Mississippi river on their shanty boat because they can't afford land to buy a house. When their mother is forced to go to the hospital with their father the sheriff and his men come and take away all the children and bring them to live at the Children's home where children are put up for adoption at exorbitant prices and rich families who cannot have children come and pick the ones they find most desirable.

The children's names are all changed to hide their real identity and so the adoption papers go through smoothly. The children are literally a commodity. This might very well be the best fiction book I have read this year. It is constantly reminding the reader that history cannot be ignored or it will most certainly repeat itself. A fitting reminder on this election day.