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“This needs to be told,”
Not in This World follows a young Black man growing up in segregated 1930s Kentucky as he navigates race, family, gender identity, and the search for a life where he can be himself. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The idea came from a story Paul told me over and over, which was the story about his father beating him for dressing up. Then Paul told me to tell our story.
One cold wintry day, I was approaching 80, the wind was howling, and all the windows looked like cellophane. For some reason I needed to find a notebook and write a story I knew by heart The day Paul’s daddy, Baptist Church preacher Elijah almost beat Paul to death. The telephone rang as I put my pen down. It was my mother telling me Paul had died a few hours ago.
My short story was read and taken up by my dear friend Tilda, who sent it to her friend, a black Pulitzer prize winning author at the New Yorker. He called me and asked me what I wanted to do with this story.He said,I believe you need to write it down, I will read every chapter.I wrote my novel. This brilliant writer and friend read every chapter,and approved it.
“This needs to be told,” he said. And so the novel was born.
What did you hope readers would understand about Paul from the beginning?
That he had a dazzling charisma, and he was a person of great empathy and tenderness.
What challenges did you face in portraying Paul’s identity authentically within its historical context?
None. Paul is a man I knew and loved so well, telling this story was like breathing in and breathing out.
Are there additional stories from this historical world that you would like to explore?
Yes, I am in the midst of writing the sequel to this story; Deep White Pockets, Due to be published in 2027
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram
An untold story of survival in a small town, 1930s Kentucky, between a young black man and a white child, joined at the hip. Their dependence on one another unfurls in this vivid narrative, sweeping through World War II, across the Atlantic and back. This novel, based on real life, is filled with descriptive vigor and dazzling dialogue, keeping readers awake at night, turning pages.
Not In This World
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
