Other editions of book The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

How did a New York-born, Jewish, former-atheist novelist and screenwriter - a winner of multiple Edgar Awards, whose books became films with Clint Eastwood and Michael Douglas - find himself at the age of 50 being baptized and confessing Jesus as Lord? That's a tale worth telling. From his childhood outside New York City through his years as college-dropout wanderer and on to his growing success as a writer, Andrew Klavan consumed stories. From novels and plays to movies and the Bible, literature helped him interpret the world and understand his place in it. Dropping out of college to wander the country as an itinerant journalist, he met the woman who became his wife - and tales of marriage have been central to his writing ever since. Wrestling with severe depression that took him to the brink of suicide, his readings of Hamlet and even Freud became crucial life-giving supports. And lying in bed reading Patrick O'Brien's seafaring tales, he found the courage to say a prayer - "thank you" - that overturned his life and led, inevitably, to his baptism in New York City a few days after his father's memorial service. The stories of Western literature led Andrew Klavan to Jesus. This is Klavan's story of that journey.

Edgar Award-winner and internationally bestselling novelist tells of his improbable conversion from agnostic Jewish-intellectual to baptized Christian and of the books that led him there.“Had I stumbled on the hallelujah truth, or just gone mad—or, that is, had I gone mad again?”No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them—among them True Crime (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Don’t Say a Word (starring Michael Douglas)—Klavan was born in a suburban Jewish enclave outside New York City. He left the faith of his childhood behind to live most of his life as an agnostic in the secular, sophisticated atmosphere of New York, London, and Los Angeles. But his lifelong quest for truth—in his life and in his work—was leading him to a place he never expected.In The Great Good Thing, Klavan tells how his troubled childhood caused him to live inside the stories in his head and grow up to become an alienated young writer whose disconnection and rage devolved into depression and suicidal breakdown. But he also stumbled into a genuine romance, a passionate and committed marriage whose uncommon and enduring devotion convinced him of the reality of love.In those years, Klavan fought to ignore the insistent call of God, a call glimpsed in a childhood Christmas at the home of a beloved babysitter, in a transcendent moment at his daughter’s birth, and in a snippet of a baseball game broadcast that moved him from the brink of suicide. But more than anything, the call of God existed in stories—the stories Klavan loved to read and the stories he loved to write.The Great Good Thing is the dramatic, soul-searching story of a man born into an age of disbelief who had to abandon everything he thought he knew in order to find his way to the truth.

Edgar Award-winner and internationally bestselling novelist tells of his improbable conversion from agnostic Jewish-intellectual to baptized Christian and of the books that led him there.“Had I stumbled on the hallelujah truth, or just gone mad—or, that is, had I gone mad again?”No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them—among them True Crime (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Don’t Say a Word (starring Michael Douglas)—Klavan was born in a suburban Jewish enclave outside New York City. He left the faith of his childhood behind to live most of his life as an agnostic in the secular, sophisticated atmosphere of New York, London, and Los Angeles. But his lifelong quest for truth—in his life and in his work—was leading him to a place he never expected.In The Great Good Thing, Klavan tells how his troubled childhood caused him to live inside the stories in his head and grow up to become an alienated young writer whose disconnection and rage devolved into depression and suicidal breakdown. But he also stumbled into a genuine romance, a passionate and committed marriage whose uncommon and enduring devotion convinced him of the reality of love.In those years, Klavan fought to ignore the insistent call of God, a call glimpsed in a childhood Christmas at the home of a beloved babysitter, in a transcendent moment at his daughter’s birth, and in a snippet of a baseball game broadcast that moved him from the brink of suicide. But more than anything, the call of God existed in stories—the stories Klavan loved to read and the stories he loved to write.The Great Good Thing is the dramatic, soul-searching story of a man born into an age of disbelief who had to abandon everything he thought he knew in order to find his way to the truth.

How did a New York–born, Jewish, former-atheist novelist and screenwriter—a winner of multiple Edgar Awards, whose books became films with Clint Eastwood and Michael Douglas—find himself at the age of fifty being baptized and confessing Jesus as Lord? That’s a tale worth telling. From his childhood outside New York City, through his years as college-dropout wanderer and on to his growing success as a writer, Andrew Klavan consumed stories. From novels and plays to movies and the Bible, literature helped him interpret the world and understand his place in it. Dropping out of college to wander the country as an itinerant journalist, he met the woman who became his wife—and tales of marriage have been central to his writing ever since. Wrestling with severe depression that took him to the brink of suicide, his reading of Hamlet and even Freud became crucial life-giving supports. And lying in bed reading Patrick O’Brien’s seafaring tales, he found the courage to say a prayer—“thank you”—that overturned his life and led, inevitably, to his baptism in New York City a few days after his father’s memorial service. The stories of Western literature led Andrew Klavan to Jesus. This is Klavan’s story of that journey.

How did a New York–born, Jewish, former-atheist novelist and screenwriter—a winner of multiple Edgar Awards, whose books became films with Clint Eastwood and Michael Douglas—find himself at the age of fifty being baptized and confessing Jesus as Lord? That’s a tale worth telling. From his childhood outside New York City, through his years as college-dropout wanderer and on to his growing success as a writer, Andrew Klavan consumed stories. From novels and plays to movies and the Bible, literature helped him interpret the world and understand his place in it. Dropping out of college to wander the country as an itinerant journalist, he met the woman who became his wife—and tales of marriage have been central to his writing ever since. Wrestling with severe depression that took him to the brink of suicide, his reading of Hamlet and even Freud became crucial life-giving supports. And lying in bed reading Patrick O’Brien’s seafaring tales, he found the courage to say a prayer—“thank you”—that overturned his life and led, inevitably, to his baptism in New York City a few days after his father’s memorial service. The stories of Western literature led Andrew Klavan to Jesus. This is Klavan’s story of that journey.

How did a New York–born, Jewish, former-atheist novelist and screenwriter—a winner of multiple Edgar Awards, whose books became films with Clint Eastwood and Michael Douglas—find himself at the age of fifty being baptized and confessing Jesus as Lord? That’s a tale worth telling. From his childhood outside New York City, through his years as college-dropout wanderer and on to his growing success as a writer, Andrew Klavan consumed stories. From novels and plays to movies and the Bible, literature helped him interpret the world and understand his place in it. Dropping out of college to wander the country as an itinerant journalist, he met the woman who became his wife—and tales of marriage have been central to his writing ever since. Wrestling with severe depression that took him to the brink of suicide, his reading of Hamlet and even Freud became crucial life-giving supports. And lying in bed reading Patrick O’Brien’s seafaring tales, he found the courage to say a prayer—“thank you”—that overturned his life and led, inevitably, to his baptism in New York City a few days after his father’s memorial service. The stories of Western literature led Andrew Klavan to Jesus. This is Klavan’s story of that journey.