Some diaries are never meant to be found — and yet, once found, they change everything. On this episode of Author Corner, host Stephanie Larkin sits down with multiple-award-winning author Gerald Everett Jones to discuss his fifteenth novel, Jonathan’s Journal.
When Jonathan Worthington discovers a leather-bound World War I diary among his late mother’s antiques, he expects nothing more than a curious relic. Instead, he finds a soldier with his exact initials — a man named “Fred” who served not in the trenches of France, but in the shadowy, overlooked campaigns of Mesopotamia and India. What starts as historical curiosity quickly becomes personal obsession, pulling Jonathan into a search for truth that spans continents, decades, and the fault lines of his own family history.
In this conversation, Gerald shares how he built this richly layered dual narrative — weaving Fred’s stoic wartime voice with Jonathan’s sharp, self-aware present-day reflections — and what drew him to explore themes of exile, identity, buried betrayal, and generational trauma. We’ll talk about the research behind the history, the art of writing parallel timelines, and why a story rooted in the past so often ends up being a mirror for the present.
For readers who love the immersive depth of Atonement, the mystery of Possession, and the emotional resonance of The English Patient, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.
A haunting, elegant journey through history, memory, and the search for self.
