The World Outside Our Door

By: Elizabeth Hawkins

Narrated by: Joanna Teljeur

It has been five days since her father’s death, and Liz still feels frozen in time. Left with 21 years of memories, Liz knows that John Frederick Smith was not a perfect man or father. She loved her father, but his drinking had always been a source of resentment. As she attempts to grapple with her grief and anger, Liz returns to her memories with the hope of finding the answers she so desperately needs.

Sixty-nine years earlier, little Fred Smith is born out-of-wedlock in the small town of Southport, North Carolina. As his life’s journey leads him from Southport to Virginia and then into the military, he eventually marries and starts a family. Still, he cannot escape the cloud of shame and rejection that secretly haunts him, sending his life in a downward trajectory that ultimately affects the lives of his children and grandchildren and leaves him wondering if he will ever find the inner-peace he craves.

In this poignant novel, the past intertwines with the present as an illegitimate child born during the early 1900s embarks on a dark journey fueled by a secret that creates generational challenges.

©2017 Elizabeth Hawkins (P)2020 Elizabeth Hawkins