Within Grace’s own family too, the cracks are widening, as her sisters Hope, Joy, and Chastity enjoy the normal life that eludes Grace. But it doesn’t take her special talent to know that her small community is harboring its share of secrets. Grace can’t see into someone’s thoughts without their permission. To her wise, loving Aunt Pearl, the Knowing is a family gift to her daddy, it’s close to witchcraft. 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. The Knowing, as Grace calls it, offers glimpses of people’s pasts and futures. 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. Set in a small Midwest town in the late 1960s and helmed by an unforgettable young protagonist-compassionate, uncannily wise Grace- This I Know is a luminous coming-of-age story from an astonishing new voice.Įleven-year-old Grace Carter has a talent for hiding things. Well, that and jumping on an opportunity to reflect on my own unique upbringing and ask, What if…? My goal in writing THIS I KNOW was to take a God-fearing preacher and thrust him into a situation where he’s forced to reexamine everything he understands, or thinks he understands. But that’s pretty much where real life and story part ways. Carter, my mother lost a full-term baby that she deeply grieved. Grace has four sisters I had five sisters and a baby brother. Like Grace, I was a child of the sixties, albeit a half-step behind my young protagonist. They live in the fictional lakeside town of Cherry Hill, MI. That said, there are definite parallels between my family and the Carters. Conversely, although they suffered through my rebellious teen years, I never for a moment in my life felt unloved by my parents.
Grace’s daddy is dogmatic, proud and devoted to his family and flock, but he can’t see past his rigid beliefs to recognize how blessed he is by a daughter he fears and condemns. Carter, my father was as kind and generous a man as you could meet-not the type of person who would make for a dynamic character in a novel. Yes, I enjoyed a fertile upbringing from which to harvest colorful characters and a rich setting, but no, this is not a story about me or about my family. Occasionally someone will ask if THIS I KNOW is autobiographical. In my author bio I describe how I teethed on the back of Southern Baptist pews in rural Midwest towns where my father preached. My mom would have three more babies before completing the Edwards family. That’s me in my oldest sister Sharon’s lap.
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