How the Light Gets In

A Novel

De: Joyce Maynard

Narrado por: Joyce Maynard

From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her beloved novel Count the Ways—a complex story of three generations of a family and its remarkable, resilient, indomitable matriarch, Eleanor.

Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface.

How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship). With her trademark sensitivity and insight, Joyce Maynard paints an indelible portrait of characters both familiar and new making their way over rough, messy, and treacherous terrain to find their way to what is, for each, a place to call “home.”

©2024 Joyce Maynard (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Perfection!

Until this profoundly beautiful novel, the prequel - Count the Ways - was one of my all time favorite books. It is possible that When the Light Gets In is even better. Joyce Maynard presents an inspirational, yet human, mother in the character of Eleanor. As in Count the Ways, Eleanor is a creative, loving mother with talents ranging from canning tomatoes and making spaghetti Carbonara to writing and illustrating children’s books all while energetically raising her 3 children who are adults in this novel. There is a daughter who is estranged from Eleanor, a son who was brain injured in childhood, and a brilliant and kind transgender son. There is a love affair with a narcissistic climate activist who cannot accept that, at her core, Eleanor is a mother. I was in awe of this mother. Her sweet son, Toby, has a large role in the story. For this I was so grateful as he is a purely good soul. The story is read with perfect sensitivity by the author herself. This usually worries me as such narrations often strike me as inherently arrogant. Not so with Joyce Maynard. She could be a trained narrator of Audible books! My only complaint- and it was somewhat substantial until I was more fully immersed — was the amount of time spent catching the reader/listener up on all that occurred in the prequel. So don’t listen to When the Light Gets In until a period of time has passed since finishing Count the Ways. Eventually, though, I was so in love with this beautiful book and its characters that I wanted it to never end.

Breathtaking

I loved everything about this book: the writing, the story, the timeline including true events, the narration.

Many interesting characters

Though at times I felt the book became a bit repetitive the story always brought me back. There was always a turn or a twist to make me want to keep listening to see what would happen in the life of one or another of the people. The book is long but I do highly recommend it.

Fully developed, touchingly human characters.

In brief, I loved the metaphor of light filtering through the broken places in the lives of most of the characters. Loss, grief, perseverance, quiet contentment, moments of joy: all pieces that somehow cohere. The glue is love. This is truly an uplifting book.

Layered, deep and rich deeply emotive story of a mother’s love and struggle

The narration was wonderful and the characters were so well developed. One feels that they can sense and understand each character’s experience. The flow of the storyline against the backdrop of America in a specific era of American history was realistic, relatable and engaging.

Rewarding sequel

I loved Joyce Maynard’s novel Count the Ways. And this sequel continues to follow Eleanor as she moves into middle age… the challenges of mothering her grown children, finding her footing in her career and romantic relationships, all within the backdrop of social and political events of recent decades.

Such a beautiful story

What can I say…Joyce Maynard is by far my favorite author and this story is a testament to human nature in all forms. She also narrates the story and does an impeccable job. Highly recommend.

Loved, Loved, Loved!

Joyce has this signature warm, wise, uniquely relatable way of writing that I completely identify with. It's as if she could look into my life and soul and transcribe them to words. This book was again special and is going into my favorites collection.

Absolutely Brilliant

From the first page through the epilogue, there wasn’t one part of this novel that I didn’t love. The characters came off the pages in vivid color both through their actions and dialogue. You know you love a novel when you don’t want it to end…and this one fit that bill perfectly!

Beautifully written and incredibly well read audible presentation completed over 3 days of listening.

the significant research that the
author did to be authentic have such truth and credibility to he story.