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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Reconstruction-era racial violence and the aftermath of slavery; historical atrocity referenced
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Adult relationships in a historical register; nothing explicit
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
The grief of family separation under slavery; the Reconstruction-era struggle for survival; a teacher's recognition of history in her students' lives
What this book is about
Louisiana, 1875. Three young women — recently freed from slavery — set out on a desperate journey to find the family members they were separated from during the war. Their names are written in the Freedmen's Bureau records as searching. Louisiana, 1987. A young English teacher at a failing school discovers those names and is drawn into the story of what happened to the women who wrote them. Lisa Wingate's dual-timeline novel is a story about the extraordinary lengths taken to preserve family across enforced separation — and the power of recovering lost names.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
historical racism and violence of the Reconstruction era
themes of family separation and slavery
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