The Book of Lost Friends

In 2020, veteran novelist Lisa Wingate released The Book of Lost Friends, an historical novel set in contemporary Louisiana with flashbacks to post-Reconstruction Texas. The first of the novel’s two storylines traces the adventures of three women who, a decade after the Civil War, undertake a dangerous journey from war-ravaged Louisiana to the open frontier of Texas in an effort to reclaim their families. The second follows the efforts of a first-year high school English teacher in rural Louisiana to use the town’s painful past to excite her students to feel the compelling power of history and storytelling. Critics and readers alike praised the novel, a New York Times best seller, for its inspirational portrayal of the triumph of powerful women in demanding circumstances and its timely message about the importance of learning from history. Wingate's 2013 novel, The Prayer Box, is a fan favorite, and she won a GoodReads Choice Award winner for Before We Were Yours in 2017..

This study guide references the first edition from Ballantine Books.

Plot Summary

After a brief Prologue set in contemporary Louisiana, the novel opens in 1875 on what used to be the Gossett Grove Plantation near Augustine, Louisiana.