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The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is a historical novel that interweaves fact and fiction to illuminate a neglected chapter of American history: the search for family members after the Civil War during the era of Reconstruction. Published in 2020, the novel alternates between two timelines and perspectives—late 19th-century Louisiana and present-day Louisiana—linking past traumas to contemporary identities and reckonings.
Plot and structure
1875 timeline: The primary thread follows a group of formerly enslaved people who place “Lost Friends” notices in regional newspapers seeking loved ones torn from them by slavery’s forced sales and migrations. The novel centers on three formerly enslaved women—Horace “Cat” Perkins’s daughter, Naomi, and her companions—who join a traveling troupe and a “haunted” show to earn money and search for family. Their journey exposes the brutality of slavery’s aftermath, the precariousness of freedom, and the resourcefulness and resilience of Black communities trying to restore lost kinship ties.
Present
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is a historical novel that interweaves fact and fiction to illuminate a neglected chapter of American history: the search for family members after the Civil War during the era of Reconstruction. Published in 2020, the novel alternates between two timelines and perspectives—late 19th-century Louisiana and present-day Louisiana—linking past traumas to contemporary identities and reckonings.
Plot and structure
1875 timeline: The primary thread follows a group of formerly enslaved people who place “Lost Friends” notices in regional newspapers seeking loved ones torn from them by slavery’s forced sales and migrations. The novel centers on three formerly enslaved women—Horace “Cat” Perkins’s daughter, Naomi, and her companions—who join a traveling troupe and a “haunted” show to earn money and search for family. Their journey exposes the brutality of slavery’s aftermath, the precariousness of freedom, and the resourcefulness and resilience of Black communities trying to restore lost kinship ties.
Present