A luminous novel of a powerfully intuitive young girl’s coming-of-age in a small, Midwest town in the late 1960s. Eleven-year-old Grace Carter has a talent for hiding things. She’s had plenty of practice, burying thoughts and feelings that might anger her strict Evangelical pastor father, and concealing the deep intuition she carries inside. The Knowing, as Grace calls it, offers glimpses of … offers glimpses of people’s pasts and futures. It enables her to see into the depth of her mother’s sadness, and even allows Grace to talk to Isaac, her twin brother who died at birth. To her wise, loving Aunt Pearl, the Knowing is a family gift; to her daddy, it’s close to witchcraft.
Grace can’t see into someone’s thoughts without their permission. But it doesn’t take her special talent to know that her small community is harboring its share of secrets. A young girl has gone missing. Within Grace’s own family too, the cracks are widening, as her sisters Hope, Joy, and Chastity enjoy the normal life that eludes Grace. It’s Grace’s kinship with other outsiders that keeps her afloat—Lyle, a gentle, homeless man, and Lola, a free-spirited new girl at school. But when her mother lapses into deep depression after bringing home a new baby, Grace will face a life-changing choice—ignore her gift and become the obedient daughter her father demands, or find the courage to make herself heard, even if it means standing apart…
“A heartfelt and beautifully crafted coming-of-age debut…Don’t miss this one.”—Lesley Kagen, New York Times bestselling author
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I was perusing a website when by I came upon Eldonna Edwards’ book “This I Know,” and while the book had been archived and was no longer available for reading and reviewing, the excerpt was available for reading and sharing on FB and Twitter. I began reading the excerpt but got only as far as, “If you asked when I first realized I had the Knowing, I wouldn’t be able to say. It started like a seed and then grew bit by bit, just slow enough not to notice. I guess I was born with it. Maybe it was just supposed to be a regular amount of intuition.” I stopped reading, knowing I must read this book. I logged out of the website I was on and logged into Amazon and purchased Edwards’ book. As an Amazon Prime member, I knew I would have the book in two days; nevertheless, I remained impatient until the book arrived.
Eldonna Edwards is the author of the best-selling memoir LOST IN TRANSPLANTATION, her story of giving one of her kidneys to a stranger. “This I Know,” Edwards’ debut historical and literary fiction novel released in April of this year (2018).
I grew-up telling those who would listen to me, “I know things that other’s don’t know.” And I did. I was naturally intuitive or ‘Knowing.’ I realized this as a child. I never understood how I knew things I shouldn’t have known, but I knew. However, I never had the ‘Knowing’ to the extent that Grace Marie, the eleven-year-old protagonist in “This I Know” had the ‘Knowing.’
Grace reminded me of Scout Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird” in her grown-up narration of “This I Know.” And to the skeptics out there that may be skeptical of an eleven-year-olds ability to narrate a tale with the intellect and creative power as Grace does in “This I Know,” let me be clear on this point, we have all known people like Grace who is not your ordinary eleven-year-old. It is unmistakable from the beginning of Ewards’ book set in a small Midwestern town in the late 1960s that Grace was born with the wit of a seasoned comedian, a heart full of love, trust and belief in others, and an old soul. But that’s not all she was born with; Grace was born with the ‘Knowing’ which remained the antipathy between Grace’s stern Evangelical pastor father who sees Grace’s gift as evil throughout the novel. Grace’s ‘Knowing’ as she refers to it, is a deep-rooted intuition that allows her to see people’s pasts, futures, her ability to talk to her dead twin brother Issak, encapsulate her mother’s suffering and much more.
Grace was a twin, her brother Issak, the only would be son died during birth and with his death, life changed for the entire family. Issak’s death was expressly cataclysmic on Grace, her father whom Grace believed blamed her for Issak’s death, and Grace’s mother. Grace has a younger sister, Chasity, and two older sisters Joy Ann and Hope. All named by their Evangelical pastor father.
The first time Grace Marie experienced her ‘Knowing,’ she was five years old sitting at the breakfast table eating pancakes with her family when she said, “Somebody should get that boy out of the lake.” When she looked at the bottle of syrup on the table, Grace saw a boy struggling, then sink to the bottom of the lake. When she saw him sink, she said, “Too late.” Moments later an ambulance, went screaming past their home on the way to the lake.
While “This I Know” can be unfairly construed as gloom and doom until you read it for yourself, the story is an all-inclusive tale of sadness, happiness, loss, freedom, life, love, laughter, and beauty. It’s life as we know it. Anyone living in the late 1960s may see parts of their own lives in Eldonna Edwards’ inspiring and captivating novel. “This I Know” is a winner, and Eldonna Edwards is a winner when it comes to writing and crafting such a heartfelt and ingenious story.
I would not be giving “This I Know” the applaud it deserves without speaking to the humor that’s masterfully intermixed with sadness and the rest of life. Once I opened the book, I couldn’t put the book down until I had read the last page, and at that point, I felt regret for reading the book as quickly as I did. I read the book under the covers at night with a book light, on the way to dinner, or when others were speaking to me (granted this I will admit was rude, but I couldn’t help myself; I had to keep reading). And there was a part of myself that self-identified with Grace’s humorous side. She kept me laughing to the point that I would seek someone out to listen to me read aloud from “This I Know” to share some of the funny parts so I wouldn’t be laughing alone. The following are a few of Grace’s comments that set me to laughing:
“Daddy says dancing and rock and roll lead to fornication, which means sex. Seems to me like it would be hard to make a baby when you’re dancing.”
“Later that night as I lay in bed I rested my hand over my heart to see if it felt any different. I knew there was supposed to be three guys in there: God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. The third one scared me, so I pictured him like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper reminds me of myself, wanting to be friends but scaring people away. Anyway, it didn’t feel one bit different. I thought I’d feel like a new person, but I just felt like plain old Grace.”
“Daddy’s talking about idols and graven images, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah.”
And this is only page thirty-one of three hundred and ninety-nine pages. It’s rare that a book comes along that I get irritated if life gets in the way of my reading and I have to put the book down before I’ve finished reading the book. “This I Know” is one of those rare books. It’s a must-read, and I strongly recommend the book to those who love to read, regardless of your genre preference, as well as to those who don’t read as I am confident this book will turn you into a reader.
I would be remiss if I did not tell you that while ‘This I Know” was released in April of this year, the book is already a Delilah Book Club Selection. Eldonna also included a reading group guide at the end of her novel that is useful for book clubs and required reading in schools, which I believe in my heart will ultimately make it into the education system’s required reading, particularly for English majors.
To make it easier for you to find “This I Know,” I am providing the following links:
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781496712868
Barnes & Nobel: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/this-i-know-eldonna-edwards/1126893647#/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/This-I-Know-Eldonna-Edwards-ebook/dp/B074DGLHYD
To learn more about Eldonna Edwards visit her website: http://www.eldonnaedwards.com/
And follow Eldonna on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EldonnaEdwards and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eldonnaedwardsauthor/
Have you bought “This I Know” yet? Don’t wait, buy Edwards’ book now, you will gulp the book down just as I did.
I stumbled across this author in a Facebook group for women writers. She did a question and answer session on Goodreads and I won a hardback copy of her book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review. I tend to avoid revealing any of the plot when giving reviews, but instead share my feelings about a book.
From the very first page I will pulled into this story. Grace is the daughter of a pastor. Although I wasn’t, I was raised Southern Baptist. Many of Grace’s thoughts echoed my own. Questioning, challenging the beliefs she was born into. The author handles these questions adeptly and beautifully. I came to love Grace.
This story is told in such a way that you can’t help falling in love with, and sympathizing with, this young girl who has the ability to “know” things others can’t. It is a deeply moving, and thought-provoking journey. This is a must read.
We meet Grace in utero with her brother, Issac. Grace early on could hear her brother’s voice. She turned 11 and took a piece of cake and candle to her bedroom closet to celebrate her brothers birthday ascwell. Her sisters ratted her out and Grace got in trouble and was told to no longer talk to her brother. Her dad said she could have burnt the whole house down. I absolutely loved all the characters especially Grace. I highly recommend anything by Ms. Edwards
“The Knowing comes from a good place. A God place.”
I loved this book! Grace is a young girl who has a heart of gold, a love for life and for making things right. She has help from “Knowing” what people think and feel at times and seeing things that others cannot see. She friends the people others shun.
“Sorrow is the good Lord’s toll for love” as said by Grace’s favorite Aunt Pearl.
It’s a story of hope and belief! Well Done!
SPOILER ALERT Eldonna Edwards’s new book, THIS I KNOW is a remarkable story about clairvoyance, faith, and self-acceptance. Grace Carter has the Knowing, a type of clairvoyance which allows her to talk to her twin brother who died at birth, and to visit her mother when she goes into a coma after a suicide attempt. At various times, Grace predicts the future, finds lost objects, and sees into the past. Born into a family headed by an Evangelical preacher father who sees her gifts as being nigh onto witchcraft, Grace is forced to hide her talents. Her father resents her on some level because she survived, adding to his household full of girls, and her brother didn’t.
I was immediately carried into this book by Grace’s childish voice as she recognizes her missing half, her dead brother, from a photograph of her mother when she was pregnant with the twins. Her voices matures as she matures, and as she learns to accept herself and her Knowing despite her father’s antipathy.
Set in the hippie era, lesbian love, free-love, and Jesus Freaks play counterpoint to Evangelical Christian beliefs.
I read this book in one sitting.
I love Eldonna’s voice and her sense of people’s inner turmoil. I could easily inhabit her characters, and thus feel what they felt, saw what they saw. There was so much story there!
I couldn’t finish this book. It just didn’t hold my interest.
Romance novel, which I don’t like
I loved this book! The father was a preacher – it doesn’t really say, but he had to be Baptist. Some of the daughter’s reaction to his beliefs were comical.
Loved this book
Written in young Grace’s voice the book covers her experience being clairvoyant, what she calls “the knowing”, while growing up as a preachers daughter.
The book is well written and has a good plot and the characters are full and interesting.
It was listed as a Historical Fiction, but really don’t see it as such. Those who read literary fiction should fall in love.
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I am really looking forward to purchasing this book and a copy for a dear friend, I am new to Eldonna Edwards but instantly was drawn to her book style and synopsis, looking forward to pay day ! 😀 so i can procure some book gems !
I’ve heard great things about this one! On my TBR list!
I absolutely loved this book. So well written and entertaining. Her characters are fully developed and so relatable
I have heard so many rave reviews from others so although I thought this was a good book, I was expecting it to grab me and not let me go. It was a well written book and I did enjoy it, although I didn’t really care much for her father in the book. I loved the beginning of the book, but after that it took me over midway into the book before I once again caught that special feeling I look for in a book
Great book!
Different kind of story!
Kind of sappy. I wanted it to be a good book. It only made kinda half way there.
Superb writing. Great character development.
This book was an extraordinary experience for me and I don’t say that lightly. I was absorbed from page one to the very end. Please, please, please read this book if you have ever thought or fantasized about just “knowing stuff.” It was exquisite!!!!!!