All the Truths Between Us

by Liz Amos

What happens when the loves in your life are on a collision course?
And faith raises more questions than it answers?

Ben and Harriet don’t remember meeting each other.
Their parents were friends long before either of them existed.

An old photo proves there was a Ben, as a toddler, beaming as he holds a squirming new-born.

That was nearly eighteen years ago. Now, they’re inseparable – they know everything about each other.

Except, Ben can’t see that Harriet is in love with him. And Harriet has no idea Ben wants to become a monk.

All the Truths Between Us is a celebration of the forces that shape us – belief and love, conflict and grief, creativity and nature – and of adapting when life has other plans.

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 31, 2023

About the author

Liz Amos writes book club fiction about people who carry multiple labels.

'All the Truths Between Us' is her debut novel and is self-published. The unpublished manuscript was longlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize in 2022.

She believes bookshelves are intimate spaces and stories start conversations.

Reviews

[Heather Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the start I thought this was going to be a typical YA romance - boy and girl best friends since childhood, she's secretly in love with him, he's taken her on a special day out to reveal a big secret to her ... so I was pleasantly surprised when his big reveal turned out to be that he wants to become a monk! (not really a spoiler, as this happens in the first chapter). Despite all the focus on religion, it's done in a way that's personal to the character and not at all preachy, and I found the details on what actually happens in a monastry absolutely fascinating. Instead of anything like a typical friends-turned-lovers story, it's instead an exploration of what it means to try and find yourself, and how sometimes love can mean letting go and seeing what happens.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great debut novel exploring the lives of a young black couple, who have known each other since they were very young. He, in particular, has faced a number of challenges and is now a star law undergraduate at Oxford with a promising career ahead of him, but is he about to give it all up to follow his faith and potentially the girl who's been in love with him all her life?

I loved how the chapters are told from their different perspectives, so the reader leans more about each other than they know themselves. I felt that their youth and naivety was captured well - despite them both being clever academically, they have their whole lives ahead of them to learn about 'life'. Both characters grew during this novel.

I also felt that the faith aspect was handled successfully. In today's society a story about a religious vocation competing with the allure of a well-paid career and a loving partner could sound 'out of place', but in this book, it really made sense in the context of the characters and the way it was told.

As a white reader, I was interested to read a story from the perspective of two black characters and appreciate the additional challenges they faced. The sense that he was being used by his Oxford Collge and the firms who gave him his summer placements to fulfil their quotas was there in the background, but not overtly expressed. I felt able to see life from his perspective and that was refreshing.

I'm looking forward to reading more from Liz Amos.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long-listed for the SI Leeds Literary Prize in 2022, it was lucky for me that a friend sent me a copy of this self-published debut novel, because I really enjoyed it. Amos writes well and the story drew me in. Short snappy chapters alternate the two main voices of Ben and Harriet. This book moves along at a good crisp pace even though the topics it deals with could be considered more contemplative and relationship oriented--faith, friendship, love, romance, creativity, vocation, grief, and conflict to name a few. Novels of faith can sometimes be tedious in their attempt to solve everything or be prescriptive or even evangelistic, but this book is none of those. I applaud the author for being open to a messy kind of faith that is not static or rule oriented, but gets at heart and soul and is open to questioning, doubt, and a searching for God.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe that this is the author's debut novel. The story is incredibly thought through from start to finish, the characters are well established and it's written brilliantly. It's the best novel I've read in a while.

[Tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story of true love, between humans and love for God. With the added significance of forgiveness of self as well as others. beautiful.

[Christelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely hooked and I appreciated the exploration of faith and devotion as key themes. I've not read anything like this before