How Lucky Audiobook By Will Leitch cover art

How Lucky

A Novel

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How Lucky

By: Will Leitch
Narrated by: Graham Halstead
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About this listen

2022 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel

“A fantastic novel.... You are going to like this a lot.” (Stephen King)

“What’s more thrilling than a fictional character speaking to us in a voice we haven’t heard before, a voice so authentic and immediate - think Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield, Mattie Ross - that we suspect it must’ve been there all along, that we somehow managed to miss it? Daniel, the protagonist of Will Leitch’s smart, funny, heartbreaking new novel How Lucky, is just such a voice, and I’m not sure it will ever completely leave my head, or that I want it to.” (Richard Russo)

For listeners of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Nothing to See Here, a first novel as suspenseful and funny as it is moving, the unforgettable story of a fiercely resilient young man living with a physical disability, and his efforts to solve a mystery unfolding right outside his door.

Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He’s got a couple close friends, a steady paycheck working for a regional airline, and, of course, for a few glorious days each fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy - despite the fact that he’s suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair.

Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he’s not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he’s almost sure he sees her being kidnapped....

©2020 Will Leitch (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Coming of Age Fiction Literary Fiction Southern Southern States Mystery Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Young Adult
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What listeners say about How Lucky

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

No need for Political Jabs

To Will Leitch: References such as “white nationalists”, southern systemic voter suppression”, and “right wing memes” to name a few, are in no way related to the story/plot and add nothing to it. Better to leave out the political jabs and focus on the story.

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90 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful! Disability studies in action!

this was a wonderful book. I love the wisdom of making the hero disabled. I learned so much about my own abilities but also lack of abilities.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Touching and insightful

This book seemed to really illustrate what it's like to be severely handicapped, but yet was hopeful at the same time. The narrator was outstanding!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

exceptional

loved it. laughed and cried and yelled at him. then honored all those like him.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

memorable

best book I've read in a long time. the main character is someone quite remarkable

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Eye opening

It was interesting to read a book centered in Athens, and with a character who was a vet student.
Characters were well developed and plot was compelling.
I hope the author writes another

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Great story

Very nice story
Couldn’t have guessed the ending
New hero in a great action story!

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Suspenseful

Sweet story with nod to Rear Window. Authentic voice added a humanity to the story

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16 people found this helpful

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Great story, great narrator

This is a wonderful story told in an original voice: that of Daniel, a 26-year old man with SMA (spinal muscle atrophy) that keeps him wheelchair-bound --an electric wheelchair, which he can still manage with the little musculature he has remaining. He speaks only with the aid of an iPad artificial voice generator (think Stephen Hawking). He lives alone in Athens Georgia, where the town is focused on football. He has one very good friend, and a wonderful caretaker. One day he sees a student apparently being abducted, and much of the book details his efforts to verify that fact and to help locate her and free her. The book is quite beautiful in its very real depiction of physical disability (along with superb mental ability). Laced throughout, is laugh out loud humor. This is a lovely book, with several very good guys (and woman) and one very bad guy. The story is read perfectly by Graham Halstead. Well worth your time.

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Thought provoking!

Slow at the first but warms up to a great story!
I enjoyed it!

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