Those We Thought We Knew

By: David Joy

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

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

One of Vanity Fair’s Favorite Books of 2023

“A beautifully fearless contemplation.” –S. A. Cosby

From award-winning writer David Joy comes a searing new novel about the cracks that form in a small North Carolina community and the evils that unfurl from its center.

Toya Gardner, a young Black artist from Atlanta, has returned to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to trace her family history and complete her graduate thesis. But when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town, she sets her sights on something bigger.

Meanwhile, local deputies find a man sleeping in the back of a station wagon and believe him to be nothing more than some slack-jawed drifter. Yet a search of the man’s vehicle reveals that he is a high-ranking member of the Klan, and the uncovering of a notebook filled with local names threatens to turn the mountain on end.

After two horrific crimes split the county apart, every soul must wrestle with deep and unspoken secrets that stretch back for generations. Those We Thought We Knew is an urgent unraveling of the dark underbelly of a community. Richly drawn and bracingly honest, it asks what happens when the people you’ve always known turn out to be monsters, what do you do when everything you ever believed crumbles away?

Good book

I liked this book - the story & the characters are dynamic and interesting, as they always are with David Joy's writing.
Macleod Andrews narration brings this book and its characters to life in a way that is hard to explain. He could bring depth and profundity to a buzzfeed listicle.

gripping but applicable

I recently found David Joy and his prose to me is incredible. I always am hooked from the jump and he doesn't hold back in this one. Social commentary is the best way to put this description of genre of the southern noir. I will never know the Black american struggle. But i am someone who is biracial and alot of the themes i could feel deep inside of me. Especially the things that he includes in the later half with the detective. its hard to not spoil but it is a 10/10

Beautiful Book

What a beautiful book! Heart wrenching, maddening, and gorgeous. Everyone in the US in 2025 should be made to read or listen to this book. Thank you, Mr. Joy.

So glad David Joy writes

It’s not a mystery per se. You know who it is before they do. But it’s suspenseful and keeps the reader coming back for more. The premise is so important—these people who uphold oppressive systems are our family, neighbors, and friends. Stories like this one offer some hope that the narratives are changing.

Amazing

This is an outstanding book. The writing is authentic and true, just like the characters. Hopefully this author will receive the recognition he deserves. A fiction writer myself I can be tough to please but for me, this book hit the sweet spot between excellent literature and chair-gripping suspense.