Before and After: The incredible and heartbreaking true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal
£4.70
‘Captivating and emotional’ 5* reader review
‘A riveting and heart wrenching read’ 5* reader review
From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a corrupt baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents – hiding the fact that many weren’t orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.
In Before and After, many survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families. Before and AFter includes moving and shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. There are stories of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed, and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace brothers, sisters, and cousins.
*Inspired by the No.1 bestselling novel Before We Were Yours*
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT BEFORE AND AFTER
‘What a truly amazing book’ 5* reader review
‘Riveting’ 5* reader review
‘A real tear-jerker’ 5* reader review
‘Powerful’ 5* reader review
‘Beautifully written and so absorbing’ 5* reader review
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Additional information
| Publisher | Quercus (22 Oct. 2019) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 6112 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 320 pages |
| Page numbers source ISBN | 0593130146 |
by Val M
Having read Before We Were Yours, it seemed common sense to read Before and After and I am very glad I did. Incredible to think something like this was allowed to happen and I pray God that it is never repeated. We are supposed to be much more enlightened now but atrocities still happen which is exceedingly worrying.
by Elizabeth Roberts
I liked the truthfulness of the reporting of this account and wish someone or someone’s could have seen long before it was revealed what was happening with these kids, which were not all orphans but kidnapped for monetary benefits!
by JaquiP
The book is so worthy. A worthy and interesting follow on from Lisa Wingate’s book Before we were yours which is a moving and heartfelt fictional story based on the children snatched, abandoned or taken by Georgia Tann and her corrupt baby business – The Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis USA and a best selling book. “Now the triumph belongs to quiet conquerers, who are ready to tell their stories.”. So. . A worthy project and a lovely idea as some of those children, now elderly and in their seventies and upwards find the courage to investigate their roots along with their children and grandchildren in many instances, and come along to a reunion arranged by the co-writers of this follow up book. Many after reading Before we were yours and recognising their own story or aspects of it in the book. Some have gone the DNA route, some have requested their birth records or relied on children or grandchildren, many are still traumatised, while generations, like the children and grandchildren of holocaust survivors, bear the brunt for generations and seek understanding and answers. “He is about to open a door that can’t be closed again.”. What a story, fact echoing or stranger than fiction and many more stories yet to still be told.
Very worthy. I don’t know how else these back stories – just a few of their stories in the book from the thousands of victims of Georgia Tann -could be told, but, at times, it was a trudge through, basically, various case histories for answers and justice, plus comments interspersed by the two writers: how they feel, their reflections on the proposed meet up reunion alongside Lisa’s book tour to promote her book, Before we were yours, which is frequently mentioned. So to review as a book, I am finding difficult. It feels, to a Brit, very American. Not the tragedies, the stories, which could be universal, but the settings, mainly the American South, Memphis, Tennessee, the language, ” Y’all”. “Kin folks”. Church roots.
In Britain, we have a popularTV programme called Long Lost Family which this book reminded me of as well as books and films regarding the Catholic Church’s treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies and how they were treated. It’s an emotive subject. Of course it is.
But, as a book, did I find myself totally absorbed in it? It has its moments, but it felt like a trudge with the stories short and jumping about from one to another, as soon as I got engrossed or interested in one family story or individual story,we were reading about another and another and anotherwith the looming reunion a sort of link but the depth and feeling for me got lost. It’s so important for the families the discovery of links to each other and the can of worms buried for generations opening. Georgia Tanks reign of evil was appallingly long, decades, so for the descendants of these babies the story should be told and the lines of communication kept open. But as a book – well it might be terrible to say, or even think, but for perhaps the average avid reader, the message comes across more powerfully in writing fiction or drama. I’m thinking Dickens and other campaigning Victorian Britons, as an example. So the book wasn’t the most enthralling, but the message is. If that makes sense. You have to have an interest in the topic to pick up the book. And if you do, it feels worthy but not deeply compelling, if that makes any sort of sense. It’s not fiction. It’s real peoples lives and experiences, painful, interesting but factual. So an important book but not as impactful as the fiction based on the facts.
by tillydog
Corruption, child trafficking, abuse and murder. However, this story is ultimately one of hope. We deserve to know where we came from. We deserve to know why we were given away, we deserve the truth about ms tann and the traffickers in the TCHS and those who supported them. We must do so in the light of the way children were treated in that period of history. We must still condemn what happened. Riveting
by Mrs. D. M. Brown
I read the first book and thought I’d enjoy this but it’s taking me a long time to read as it’s more documentary and not story
by L. J. May
What a truly amazing book. I had already read Before we were yours which I thought was also a brilliant read and was so shocked to learn, that although a fictional family, events like those described had actually happened.
I’m so pleased that the events that followed this book happened. It’s so important that these stories are told and remembered.
The bravery shown by these adoptees & their families is amazing. I wish them every happiness going forward & hope that other biological family members are found.
May God bless you all & those tragically taken too early.
by Irenemacp
This book was an enjoyable read, all the more so, because it relates to true stories that emerged in the wake of a work of fiction. Enjoyable read
by Tracy Martel
I cried, and laughed, and couldn’t put the first book down. Immediately got this follow up book when I finished the first one. This one starts slow but again, cannot put it down once you get into it.