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 centre for fans of Daniel Woodrell, George Pelecanos, WIlliam Boyle and Ozark . 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? PRAISE FOR THOSE WE THOUGHT WE KNEW : '[A] bracing novel . both a murder mystery and a deeply intimate story of generational relationships and loss' - Vanity Fair 'An emotionally complex procedural that goes to unexpected places' - Kirkus Reviews 'With his faultless ear for dialogue and exceptional sense of place, he has crafted a beautiful literary crime thriller about belonging and betrayal in rural America' - Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and Slow Fire Burning 'Spinning the gritty complexities and colors of human nature with beautiful, immersive descriptions of the land, Joy writes both holiness and irreverence with the same weight and care' - Leesa Cross-Smith, author of Half-Blown Rose 'The best novels ask the hard questions and task us to come up with answers. Joy is asking the hardest question and daring us to answer truthfully' - S.A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears and All the Sinners Bleed.