Book cover of Those We Thought We Knew

Book description

Winner of the 2023 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
Winner of the 2023 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award
Winner of the 2024 Sir Walter Raleigh Award

From award-winning writer David Joy comes a searing new novel about the cracks that form in a small North Carolina community and the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Those We Thought We Knew as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Joy offers an unflinching look at modern Appalachia through a compelling narrative that twists through a small, mountain town's dark shadows. Joy knows this place and these people. This brave telling brings to light the seen, yet often unnamed undercurrent of racial animosity that persists among those we think we know. This can be a hard read for what it stirs up. But it is all-too-relevant, a work of fiction ripped straight from the headlines, and as well-told a story as you'll see anywhere.

If you love Those We Thought We Knew...

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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