Testimonials

“Moving, thoughtful, and deeply inspiring, Linda Carleton's ALL GOD, IF GOD THERE BE chronicles a life's journey from the pain of abuse to hard-won faith. Carleton has a rare gift to never overly simplify yet to always struggle through darkness to hope. In this book, she finds and shares light. I feel profoundly lucky to have read it and believe it will be dearly held by many.”

Alex Mazaro-Levnevich, Lambeth Award-winning author of The Fact of a Body

“Linda Carlton’s spiritual memoir, All God, if God There Be, is an astonishing opening. This is not to suggest that the topics of incest and PTSD have not been addressed extensively in women’s (and men’s) memoirs. Nor is it uncharted territory to read of the process of healing as a spiritual process. But the reader would be short-changed if they did not allow themselves to be with the story Linda is presenting, to be with it and in it enough to feel the tangled web of betrayal and deceit and psychological disorder that emerges from such a story. What feels rich and new in her memoir is the depth to which she takes us into her exploration: down deep inside the young girl and then the grown woman who, despite all the cultural and religious forces that push her to turn away and get on with her good life, she does not abandon herself mid-journey. And she takes us, her readers, with her. Tender, intelligent without being intellectual, sensitive but not maudlin, Linda’s story will be a gift to anyone who reads it looking for answers to the questions of what makes our injured lives livable once we’re the ones living it. “

Dulcie Witman, LADC, MFA. Wide Open Writing

“Within these pages, Linda Carleton invites readers to open a door that will lead from death to life, from brokenness to healing, from weakness to strength. You’ll find a story of courage and of a lifelong commitment to prayer in its biggest sense. Beyond this door readers can discover how one woman’s trauma of incest no longer has power to suppress. Instead, the author testifies to the healing that flows following the hard work of truth-telling and the harder work of re-membering, that is, putting things back together. In the Book of Acts there is a woman whose truth and knowledge cannot be diminished no matter the denial and derision of others; her name is Rhoda, and it is she who recognized the voice of Peter from behind a closed door. Rhoda didn’t need to see Peter to claim her truth or her joy (Acts 12:14). The door opened, and Rhoda’s “truth” was there for everybody to see. Go ahead: open the door of this book because it could well be an occasion for you to follow the author’s lead and proclaim, “the truth shall set you free.”

The Right Reverend Thomas Brown, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine

“All God, If God There Be is a soulful memoir written by a woman who, for most of her life, has been on an indefatigable quest to find her inner truth and her relationship to Spirit. During her early years and into adulthood, Linda has worked tirelessly to understand and heal from the trauma of family dysfunction, including sexual abuse. She has written her story with the utmost skill and a great deal of courage. Her faith is deep and far-reaching and her curiosity has opened her mind to mysticism, and other spiritual practices, including metaphysical and reincarnation.  It is her devotion to Christianity and the teachings of Jesus, however, that have been her “North Star.” This book holds much wisdom and universal truth.”

Lisa Barstow, author of Don’t Go Back to Sleep and Where the Two World’s Touch.