{"id":1219,"date":"2025-09-26T12:45:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2025-09-26T12:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:52:31","slug":"my-beloved-by-jan-karon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/my-beloved-by-jan-karon\/","title":{"rendered":"“My Beloved” by Jan Karon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jan Karon intended To Be Where You Are<\/em>, published in 2017, to be her final Mitford novel. She insisted more than once that she had said all she had to say about Mitford. She even stopped writing for a while in response to the heartbreaking losses of her mother, her daughter, and her brother in the space of six years, explaining that \u201cthere was really nothing left in me to write with<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think Jan was surprised as everyone else when she ended up writing My Beloved<\/em>, the fifteenth Mitford novel. While in France in 2022, she tried to write her autobiography, but it wasn\u2019t going well. Later, as a writing exercise, she decided to work on a Mitford short story she had started writing in 2008. When she announced the novel at the 2024 spring tea at the Mitford Museum, she said, \u201cI was laughing, and I was crying, and I was at home in Mitford.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read about and watch her announcement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As thrilled as I am about this wonderful new novel, my greatest joy is that our beloved author herself is at home in Mitford again.<\/p>\n

My Beloved<\/em> is the story of a love letter that Father Tim writes to Cynthia as her Christmas gift getting lost and being passed around town. I must confess that when I first heard this, I was a bit dubious. Wouldn\u2019t anyone who found it just return it to him, for Pete\u2019s sake? But when I read an advance review copy of the novel, I saw how brilliantly Jan makes this unlikely premise completely plausible\u2014even life-changing for one character. It works in Mitford.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to the book than the mystery of a missing letter. We catch up with our old Mitford friends, plus a few new ones. Dooley and Lace\u2019s daughter, Sadie, is almost three, which means that it\u2019s about three and a half years since the end of To Be Where You Are<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One of the many things I love about the Mitford novels is the way they make me both laugh and cry in a combination I haven\u2019t encountered elsewhere. There are lots of laughs in My Beloved<\/em>; as in real life, there\u2019s also sorrow. One of the most heartbreaking parts is learning more about Cynthia\u2019s back story\u2014the suicide attempt we briefly heard of in A Light in the Window<\/em> and the details and exposure of her first husband\u2019s infidelity that drove her to it. But we also meet the friends who loved her through the crisis and her recovery, and we see her spiritual conversion.<\/p>\n

The epigraph for My Beloved<\/em> is I John 4:7: \u201cBeloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.\u201d The novel explores the important Mitford themes of love, helping, gratitude, forgiveness, and redemption. To avoid spoilers, I\u2019ll just say there\u2019s one story of redemption that literally took my breath away.<\/p>\n

A lovely bonus feature is the four-page afterword, where Jan tells her readers, \u201cI\u2019m always writing to just one person: you.\u201d She discusses her cultural background in western North Carolina, her use of voice and vernacular (all those apostrophes, don\u2019t you know), and how this book came about.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the novel, Father Tim tells Hope Murphy, \u201cThis town, this time in our lives, this holiness of being\u2014it\u2019s the flat-out best of all worlds in the scheme of things.\u201d All I can say is \u201cAmen!\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to enjoy the Mitford novels in the company of others, I invite you to join us in the\u00a0Mitford Book Club<\/a> on Facebook, where we\u2019re exploring the rich depths of Jan Karon\u2019s writing in a warm community of Mitford lovers.<\/p>\n

The novel\u2019s publication date is October 7, but you can preorder it. I\u2019ve ordered all 3 formats! Find My Beloved<\/em> here:<\/p>\n

Hardcover<\/a><\/p>\n

Kindle<\/a><\/p>\n

Audiobook<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: Mitford fans were heartbroken to learn of the 2021 death of beloved narrator John McDonough, who brought so many of the Mitford books to life through his voice. To narrate My Beloved<\/em>, Jan Karon chose Ryan Lee Dunlap from seven award-winning narrators. She explained in a September 9 post on her Facebook page: \u201cAfter hearing and choosing Ryan, I learned he\u2019s from my home state! And his mom is a \u2018huge\u2019 Mitford fan, don\u2019t you know. No one knew this until I started asking about his family. So there you go, gentle readers. Our new voice, Ryan Dunlap, grew up hearing the speech patterns of my lovable, infuriating, and unforgettable characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to hear about upcoming events, including a webinar about what makes Mitford unique and\u2014eventually\u2014interactive online classes about the Mitford novels, sign up for my occasional All Things Mitford newsletter at www.MitfordNews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links; when you purchase through them, I earn a small commission that supports my Mitford work. Thank you!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan Karon intended To Be Where You Are, published in 2017, to be her final Mitford novel. She insisted more than once that she had said all she had to say about Mitford. She even stopped writing for a while in response to the heartbreaking losses of her mother, her daughter, and her brother in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,30],"tags":[23,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-mitford","tag-jan-karon","tag-mitford-novel","tag-my-beloved","tag-my-beloved-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1225,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}