**THE BLOCKBUSTER HITOver 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 chargeuntil 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 parentsbut 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.
Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandalsin which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the countryLisa 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 2017Winner of the Southern Book PrizeIf All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection
This edition includes a new essay by the author about shantyboat life.