Not in This World, by Jane Scott Stuart with Elaine Flowers, is a sweeping historical fiction novel that begins in segregated 1930s Kentucky and follows Paul Carew, a young Black man whose gentleness, creativity, love of beautiful things, and complicated sense of identity set him on a path far beyond the community known as the Kingdom. Paul cooks, sews, sings, dances, tends flowers, and finds joy in dressing in women’s clothes, all while growing up under the frightening authority of his preacher father, Elijah. The novel establishes its emotional stakes early, then widens into a story about family, race, gender, friendship, survival, and the search for a place where a person can live more freely. The authors describe the book as fiction based on true accounts, and that connection to real experience gives this Southern historical fiction a particularly intimate quality.

Some of the book’s most affecting chapters belong to Paul and Moses, childhood friends whose bond feels as natural as breathing. Their lives also reveal how dangerous Jim Crow Kentucky can be, especially after Moses becomes entangled with Kenneth Baynor and is charged with his murder. The consequences are devastating, and Moses’s fate changes Paul permanently. From there, the story expands without losing its personal focus. Paul becomes part of the Jackson household and, eventually, the devoted caregiver to young Jane, who calls him Paw-Paw and attaches herself to him with complete trust. Their relationship grows into the heart of the novel. It’s a form of chosen family that crosses race, class, age, and social expectations, and the affection between them gives the heavier sections of this coming-of-age historical fiction real warmth. Moses’s death, meanwhile, remains present in Paul’s life instead of becoming a plot point he simply leaves behind.

The move across the Atlantic gives Not in This World another dimension. Paul travels with Jane and her family to England and Ireland, where everyday experiences force him to reconsider assumptions that American segregation had taught him were permanent. Later, with World War II underway, he joins the Royal Air Force and grows from a gifted domestic worker who has spent much of his life serving others into a confident serviceman whose courage earns recognition. These sections make the novel compelling World War II historical fiction, but Paul’s inner life remains just as important as military events. His attraction to men, his pleasure in feminine clothes and makeup, and his private negotiations with masculinity are woven throughout his journey, giving the book a place within LGBTQ+ historical fiction as well. The contrast becomes especially sharp when Paul returns to Kentucky in uniform after serving overseas and discovers that military achievement hasn’t erased the rules governing where a Black man can sit, eat, or watch a movie.

What I liked most is the way the novel brings Paul’s public and private selves together through Jane. In the final chapter, she discovers him in a yellow silk dress, makeup, earrings, and perfume, dancing before his mirror. Paul is terrified that the secret he’s guarded for years has finally been exposed. Jane’s response is immediate delight: she recognizes the person she already loves. It’s a beautifully chosen ending because it gathers so many of the novel’s threads into one small room: the frightened boy once brutalized for putting on a dress, the man who has survived racism and war, the caregiver who has given Jane unconditional love, and the child who returns that love without hesitation. That moment captures what makes Not in This World memorable as historical fiction, LGBTQ+ fiction, and a personal story of chosen family. It’s a novel about being seen fully by another person and discovering that love can make room for every part of you.

Pages: 376 | ISBN : 978-1736458334