How long does it take to read Before We Were Yours?
A Novel
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate takes about 8 hours 7 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 8 hours 7 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2016. 443 pages, about 121,825 words.
17 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 13 hours 32 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 8 hours 7 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 5 minutes |
The page count is the median across 16 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice. 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. - Jacket flap.
Subjects: FICTION / Contemporary Women, Brothers and sisters, Orphanages, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Historical, Fiction
