Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book

Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most

passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or

Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her

family’s history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores

how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next.

Illustrated with photographs from the author’s personal collection,

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the

Gibson women – sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts – and the

men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared

their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire

surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she

confronts abuse.

As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and

brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, steeped

in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of

her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.