--- product_id: 99606864 title: "Before We Were Yours: A Novel" price: "€ 13.76" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/99606864-before-we-were-yours-a-novel store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # Before We Were Yours: A Novel **Price:** € 13.76 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Before We Were Yours: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** € 13.76 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/99606864-before-we-were-yours-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—Over two million copies sold! A New York Times , USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller “Poignant, engrossing.”— People “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power.”—Paula McLain Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty. Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption. Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017 Winner of the Southern Book Prize If All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection Review: Heartwrenching story that I could barely put down - This is a story of 5 siblings, especially the oldest sister Rill, who try to stay together after they are kidnapped from their shanty boat home by agents of one of the most prolific human traffickers in US history. In the story, their love for each other and desire and attempts to protect one another are both heartwarming and heart wrenching. Thankfully the ending is heartwarming and not tragic, because I don't think I could have handled a tragic ending to a book that already had so much heartbreak. If you love children, this is a very difficult story to read. I personally believe that there is a special place in hell for people who harm children. The part that makes this story so awful is that the Tennessee Children's Home Society was a real place, and Georgia Tann was a real person who trafficked an estimated 5,000 kidnapped children in for profit adoption schemes that lined her own pockets. She preyed on the socioeconomically poor parents that she stole the children from, but also on the adoptive parents that probably desperately wanted children. And I'm sure that the vast majority of them were fed a pack of lies by Georgia Tann and legitimately believed they were adopting children that had no other family in the world. She also preyed on the children themselves, forcing them to live in dangerous, unsanitary and often abusive conditions. It's just disgusting. On further research about Georgia Tann, it appears that she held to the belief that there were two kinds of people: the poor, whom she viewed as incompetent parents, and the wealthy. She fattened her own purse in the process. For DECADES. "She just thought that she knew better than God." One survivor reunited with her birth parents stated: "The Bible says you're not supposed to hate anybody, but I'll tell you, if that woman was still living . . . all those people she did this to, all the suffering she caused for money. And she couldn't take a dime of it with her." The writing is compelling and the children are wonderfully developed. I just wanted to give Rill a hug and tell her she was amazing for trying so hard to be a good big sister and to look out for the little ones. They try so hard to be resilient and look out for one another in the worst of circumstances. I pray that my kids would stick together like that, god willing they will never be in situation where they are permanently separated from family. The people on the river and the Seviers are also wonderful to read about. The one thing I could have done without was the half baked love triangle with Avery. After the 3rd Avery chapter, I just started flipping through those parts because they were so irrelevant to the rest of the story. This was a single-day read for me because it was so compelling. I just had to see how it ended. I cried for Gabion, he reminded me so much of my baby. I'm glad it ended the way it did. Review: Lisa Wingate's best book yet! - Another fabulous book from Lisa Wingate, but this one takes a different turn. Lisa has taken actual events, the adoption scandal of The Tennessee Children's Home Society that was exposed in 1950, and has woven an engrossing account of lives changed. It is told in two different voices in two different times, but unlike some books that doesn't prove a distraction. It is very easy to keep it all straight, and it adds to the suspense by taking you up to a point and then pulling you back to a different aspect of the story. The characters are well developed, and you are allowed to peel back the layers slowly to get the big picture. As Rill's story unfolds, you are held spellbound by the unrelenting sadness of her situation, and horrified by the fact that these things really happened to some children. Wingate has a gift for imagery that pulls you into a scene. But in true Lisa Wingate fashion, there are also plenty of happier moments to relieve the sadness and many truths uncovered. Avery's story gives some interesting insights into how political families live their lives on display. She wasn't the most sympathetic character in the beginning, but she did grow on me as she learned to be more aware of her own aspirations and feelings. A well-crafted new effort from Wingate, it is one of those books you can't put down and you don't want to end! This book is a little different twist for Lisa Wingate. She has taken actual events, the adoption scandal of The Tennessee Children's Home Society that was exposed in 1950, and has woven an engrossing account of lives changed. A large family living on a houseboat on the Mississippi River finds themselves in a desperate situation one dark and stormy night. The father must take the mother, in the midst of a life-threatening childbirth, to the hospital leaving the five children on the boat. Operatives for the predatory orphanage grab the children and propel them into a terrifying situation. Big sister Rill tries desperately to protect her siblings and keep them together through it all. It is told in two different voices in two different times, but unlike some books that doesn't prove a distraction. It is very easy to keep it all straight, and it adds to the suspense by taking you up to a point and then pulling you back to a different aspect of the story. The characters are well developed, and you are allowed to peel back the layers slowly to get the big picture. As Rill's story unfolds, you are held spellbound by the unrelenting sadness of her situation, and horrified by the fact that these things really happened to some children. Wingate has a gift for imagery that pulls you into a scene. But in true Lisa Wingate fashion, there are also plenty of happier moments to relieve the sadness and many truths uncovered. The other voice is that of Avery, the daughter and heir-apparent of a political dynasty. Her story gives some interesting insights into how political families live their lives on display. She wasn't the most sympathetic character in the beginning, but she did grow on me as she learned to be more aware of her own aspirations and feelings. This is a well-crafted new effort from Wingate - one of those books you can’t put down and you don’t want to end! ## Images ![Before We Were Yours: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91bn4O56TJL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Heartwrenching story that I could barely put down *by K***R on April 3, 2019* This is a story of 5 siblings, especially the oldest sister Rill, who try to stay together after they are kidnapped from their shanty boat home by agents of one of the most prolific human traffickers in US history. In the story, their love for each other and desire and attempts to protect one another are both heartwarming and heart wrenching. Thankfully the ending is heartwarming and not tragic, because I don't think I could have handled a tragic ending to a book that already had so much heartbreak. If you love children, this is a very difficult story to read. I personally believe that there is a special place in hell for people who harm children. The part that makes this story so awful is that the Tennessee Children's Home Society was a real place, and Georgia Tann was a real person who trafficked an estimated 5,000 kidnapped children in for profit adoption schemes that lined her own pockets. She preyed on the socioeconomically poor parents that she stole the children from, but also on the adoptive parents that probably desperately wanted children. And I'm sure that the vast majority of them were fed a pack of lies by Georgia Tann and legitimately believed they were adopting children that had no other family in the world. She also preyed on the children themselves, forcing them to live in dangerous, unsanitary and often abusive conditions. It's just disgusting. On further research about Georgia Tann, it appears that she held to the belief that there were two kinds of people: the poor, whom she viewed as incompetent parents, and the wealthy. She fattened her own purse in the process. For DECADES. "She just thought that she knew better than God." One survivor reunited with her birth parents stated: "The Bible says you're not supposed to hate anybody, but I'll tell you, if that woman was still living . . . all those people she did this to, all the suffering she caused for money. And she couldn't take a dime of it with her." The writing is compelling and the children are wonderfully developed. I just wanted to give Rill a hug and tell her she was amazing for trying so hard to be a good big sister and to look out for the little ones. They try so hard to be resilient and look out for one another in the worst of circumstances. I pray that my kids would stick together like that, god willing they will never be in situation where they are permanently separated from family. The people on the river and the Seviers are also wonderful to read about. The one thing I could have done without was the half baked love triangle with Avery. After the 3rd Avery chapter, I just started flipping through those parts because they were so irrelevant to the rest of the story. This was a single-day read for me because it was so compelling. I just had to see how it ended. I cried for Gabion, he reminded me so much of my baby. I'm glad it ended the way it did. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lisa Wingate's best book yet! *by C***N on October 8, 2017* Another fabulous book from Lisa Wingate, but this one takes a different turn. Lisa has taken actual events, the adoption scandal of The Tennessee Children's Home Society that was exposed in 1950, and has woven an engrossing account of lives changed. It is told in two different voices in two different times, but unlike some books that doesn't prove a distraction. It is very easy to keep it all straight, and it adds to the suspense by taking you up to a point and then pulling you back to a different aspect of the story. The characters are well developed, and you are allowed to peel back the layers slowly to get the big picture. As Rill's story unfolds, you are held spellbound by the unrelenting sadness of her situation, and horrified by the fact that these things really happened to some children. Wingate has a gift for imagery that pulls you into a scene. But in true Lisa Wingate fashion, there are also plenty of happier moments to relieve the sadness and many truths uncovered. Avery's story gives some interesting insights into how political families live their lives on display. She wasn't the most sympathetic character in the beginning, but she did grow on me as she learned to be more aware of her own aspirations and feelings. A well-crafted new effort from Wingate, it is one of those books you can't put down and you don't want to end! This book is a little different twist for Lisa Wingate. She has taken actual events, the adoption scandal of The Tennessee Children's Home Society that was exposed in 1950, and has woven an engrossing account of lives changed. A large family living on a houseboat on the Mississippi River finds themselves in a desperate situation one dark and stormy night. The father must take the mother, in the midst of a life-threatening childbirth, to the hospital leaving the five children on the boat. Operatives for the predatory orphanage grab the children and propel them into a terrifying situation. Big sister Rill tries desperately to protect her siblings and keep them together through it all. It is told in two different voices in two different times, but unlike some books that doesn't prove a distraction. It is very easy to keep it all straight, and it adds to the suspense by taking you up to a point and then pulling you back to a different aspect of the story. The characters are well developed, and you are allowed to peel back the layers slowly to get the big picture. As Rill's story unfolds, you are held spellbound by the unrelenting sadness of her situation, and horrified by the fact that these things really happened to some children. Wingate has a gift for imagery that pulls you into a scene. But in true Lisa Wingate fashion, there are also plenty of happier moments to relieve the sadness and many truths uncovered. The other voice is that of Avery, the daughter and heir-apparent of a political dynasty. Her story gives some interesting insights into how political families live their lives on display. She wasn't the most sympathetic character in the beginning, but she did grow on me as she learned to be more aware of her own aspirations and feelings. This is a well-crafted new effort from Wingate - one of those books you can’t put down and you don’t want to end! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not my usual genre *by S***A on April 9, 2026* I would say it’s closer to 3.5-4 stars for me. I will also be upfront that this book is not what i normally read so my view will definitely differ than most who pick it up because they are interested. I read this for an online book club, and I think it was an interesting read and well written. The tragedy of the story line was felt. The idea of taking a real event and creating a story that displays some of the things that occurred makes me feel mixed about it. I feel the past telling and the older woman’s parts were great. I didn’t care for Avery and her love story line. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/99606864-before-we-were-yours-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.be/products/99606864-before-we-were-yours-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-07-28*