What Jonah Knew

"A spellbinding literary thriller packed with psychological suspense and profound questions about motherhood, trauma and how death illuminates life."--Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins

"Barbara Graham is a literary alchemist. What Jonah Knew not only grabs you from the first page, it makes the mystical believable and the human predicament shine with wit, wisdom, and love."--Tara Brach, meditation teacher and bestselling author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

A seven-year-old boy inexplicably recalls the memories of a missing 22-year-old musician in this psychological thriller about the fierce love between mothers and sons across lifetimes, a work of gripping suspense with a supernatural twist that will mesmerize fans of Chloe Benjamin and Lisa Jewell.

In September 2002, young musician Henry Bird mysteriously disappears in Aurora Falls. He's last seen walking towards the Timber Creek Motel.

In May 2003, Jonah Daniel is born to Lucie and Matt Pressman in New York City. Four years later, the episodes start. The mysterious night terrors. The imaginary friends Jonah insists are real. The dog named Charlie and his "other" mom. But Jonah doesn't have a pet or another mother.

When a psychologist suggests that Jonah may be having recollections of a previous life, this shocking news leads Lucie Pressman to Helen Bird, the owner of Queen Hearts Bakery in Aurora Falls and Henry Bird's mother. Aching for her lost son, Helen remains unconditionally devoted to solving his disappearance.

Is it possible that little Jonah is Helen;s son come back to her? Or just a cruel and unsettling coincidence? But how could he seem to know things about Henry's life?

Left with so many questions and seemingly no answers, the two mothers join forces to make sense of the unimaginable. It is a quest that will force them to redefine what it means not just to be a mother or a human being, but the very nature of life--and death.