The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

Andrew Klavan

Sep 2016 · Sold by Zondervan

About this ebook

No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. The Great Good Thing tells the 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.

Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them--among them True Crime and Don’t Say a Word--bestselling author and Edgar Award-winner 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 until he found himself mulling over the hard questions that so many other believers have asked:

• How can I be certain in my faith?
• What's the truth, and how can I know it's the truth?
• How can you think, live, and make choices and judgments day by day if you don't know for sure?

In The Great Good Thing, Klavan shares that 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.

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.

Join Klavan as he discovers the meaning of belief, the importance of asking tough questions, and the power of sharing your story.

Ratings and reviews

Great read from beginning to end. Couldn't put it down. Interesting story made great from excellent writing. What might have been mundane in other hands, Andrew Klavan brings you right there so you're experiencing his life as he experienced it. Not normally a fan of autobiography, but this was a compelling story. Full disclosure: I'm a Christian. However I truly think anyone would enjoy this book, regardless of worldview. This is an exploration of the maturation, growth and development of one person. Andrew Klavan is respectfully sharing his story; he is not trying to convince you to follow him.

This book has really served as almost a guide as I'm currently trying to reason through my own faith as well. I have this author to thank for providing the logical arguments proving God's existence and helping me start on the path to my own faith

In his book "Wild at Heart", John Eldredge explains that there are three things men dream of: 1) a battle to fight, 2) an adventure to live, and 3) a beauty to rescue. Eldredge also establishes two things that men have to confront: that they are naturally posers, and that their fathers wound them at some point...This is Andrew Klavan in "The Great Good Thing", a memoir of his experience as a Jew, an American, and eventually, as a Christian all at once. Who knew such an exciting, painful, magnificent life could come from growing up and living in the 'burbs? Klavan's writing experience and effort, and his wife's edits, have paid off; this is an easy and fast read, a flat-out good story. I highly recommend it.

About the author

Andrew Klavan is an award-winning writer, screenwriter, and media commentator. An internationally bestselling novelist and two-time Edgar Award-winner, Klavan is also the host of a popular podcast on DailyWire.com, The Andrew Klavan Show. His work has been made into films starring Clint Eastwood, Michael Douglas, and Michael Caine. His essays on politics, religion, and culture have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere.