Preview
  • How the Light Gets In

  • A Novel
  • By: Joyce Maynard
  • Narrated by: Joyce Maynard
  • Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (84 ratings)

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How the Light Gets In

By: Joyce Maynard
Narrated by: Joyce Maynard
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Publisher's summary

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
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What listeners say about How the Light Gets In

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
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Breathtaking

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

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

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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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.






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    5 out of 5 stars
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It takes a lifetime to learn to forgive

Joyce Maynard’s story “How the Light Gets In” and the one that started it all, “Count the Ways,” is a beautiful story of a family like so many. Nothing special and yet everything extraordinary. I loved it. I will deeply miss spending time with the main character, the flawed and perfectly broken Eleanor, and her oh-so-human children, everyone else too. The story of the estrangement between Eleanor and her daughter has been a healing balm for me. Just knowing there are so many others out there like me — gives me hope.

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

Great narration

I have such mixed feelings about this book. For me it was just too long. I skipped chapters here and there and that helped but just too wordy. I liked the story and characters were interesting so that's why the mixed feelings... story was good, narration excellent but on the other hand also boring and repetitive. I understand why some might be upset with the politics but I agreed with it all so didn't mind it. I would say pass on using a credit

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

Wonderful!

I came to this book wanting to hear more about the characters (this is the continuation of Count The Ways), and feared the ending - I was surely going to be left wanting more. Instead, it beautifully sends these guys off into the future. And the voice of the author is beyond my capacity to describe - intimate, kind, sure of itself. Loved every second of it, and I am left happy. Thank you!!!

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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.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Raw discussion of real life wrapped lightly in fiction

This novel touched me on so many levels: as a parent primarily with many family intricacies; connecting with social/political events; as a music lover; and downright as a damn good story. There were a couple of times that I wanted to stop listening to this book (not because of the narration, the audio version is great) as it touched many chords going on with my life that at times I didn't want to explore but ultimately kept with the story. Bravo!

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This is my first 5 star review!

I loved the way she brought the characters to life. I feel like they are people I have known.

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Liberal vs Conservative

I found this book overall wonderful but (yes, there’s a but) insulting at conservative people & views. Taking the ‘lazy-A~hole’ son-in-law who watches Fox News, who believes in closing our borders (to not let ILLEGAL immigrants into our country) etc to depict conservative views 👎🏻. That is insulting!

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