How The Light Gets In

I picked up this book on a whim on Saturday night, and I am already finished with it. I actually finished it Monday. It is always great when a book is that good that I just want to keep reading and reading until I finish it.

How The Light Gets In, by M.J. Hyland, is a story of Louise (Lou for short), a Sydneysider who enters an exchange program to the US, to get the hell out of her crappy flat and crappy life. She is a genius, (who just happens to be poor) and feels unloved and alone in her family. So, she arrives in America, in the Chicago suburbs, hoping for a new life and to find a way to stay away from her old one. She has every good intention of being everything her host family, The Hardings, want her to be. But, it doesn't really work out that way. She finds herself struggling to fit into their perfect, suburban life that is so foreign from her own, and starts failing miserably.

There are no upbeat emotional breakthroughs, family togetherness or happy endings. But, there is a real, well written story of broken expectation, both of ourselves and others. I find it hard to believe that this is only Hyland's first novel. It's truly a departure from the usual fodder that features a female main character. So, check out How The Light Gets In for a truly original and amazingly poignant story.