August 4

Before We Were Yours (2017)
By Lisa Wingate

This is a good read on more than one level - it has two basic tracks.  One is a historically based track based around corruption in politics and human trafficking in children in the early 1900s, the other a track that explores today's politics and its biases regarding family and background.

One track tells the story of a family from the river community around Memphis - a family ripped apart by children-stealers.  The children are marketed to wealthy families with total disregard to their own tragedy.  Close family ties between the children are ignored, and the siblings involved are separated and disposed of for the profit of the organization doing the stealing, posing as a benevolent orphanage.  Political corruption protects the organization.

The other track tells the story of a political family in current America, centered around the main character, who is being groomed for political office, and her grandmother, whom she begins to realize is one of those stolen children.

Well developed and thought provoking, this story even has an ending where, despite all of the bad things seem to turn out for good.

Review submitted by Dewey Christy.  Thanks, Dewey!