Publication Date: June 1, 2023
Eilidh, bright, headstrong and feisty, gets sparkling exam results that confirm her university place. Her boyfriend reveals he has deceived her. In the ensuing argument she is knocked unconscious. She arrives in 1984, in an Ethiopian refugee camp, where she nurses a dying child, then a wounded aid worker before wakening back home in present-day Scotland. Three days later, at an isolated beauty spot trying to come to terms with her ex boyfriend’s betrayal and her experience in Ethiopia, she encounters Walter, who is in the early stages of dementia. He is there because of a tattoo on his wrist that simply states the date and location of the beauty spot. Eilidh recognizes Walter’s symptoms, takes him home and contacts his niece to come and collect him.
Over the following 48-hour period Eilidh finds herself transported to various locations in Europe and North America, and time periods from the previous fifty years. Each episode draws her further into an unexpected and unconventional romance. Eventually she travels to WW2 blitzed Liverpool and meets a fellow time-traveler who explains that Eilidh faces a decision with life and death consequences.
Buoyed by her college admission score, Eilidh eagerly sets off for a meeting with her boyfriend to continue mapping out their joint future. In the aftermath of a devastating conversation, she hits her head, leading to a series of time travel events.
Author Russell Govan takes readers across Europe and North America as Eilidh travels to time periods within the past 50 years. I Know You delivers a fresh take on time travel.
From a refugee camp where she first encounters a wounded Walter to other periods of time centering around key moments in his life, Eilidh finds herself strangely drawn to this man.
The storyline features her traveling between past and present, trying to make sense of what is happening. Ultimately, she has to make a decision about where—and when—she belongs.
I Know You highlights a whirlwind 48-hour period when the main character is transported back in time, where she encounters a man who may be the key to her future.
Russell Govan is a Scottish, Oxford-based author who started writing in 2015. His first novel was published in 2020. A second novel in the same genre is scheduled for late 2021. An extract from I Know You was shortlisted for the 2019 Grindstone International Short Story Prize.
