Count the Ways

In her most ambitious novel to date, New York Timesbestselling author Joyce Maynard returns to the themes that are the hallmarksof her most acclaimed work in a mesmerizing story of a family-from the hopefulearly days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce, and the costly aftermaththat ripples through all their livesEleanor and Cam meet at a craftsfair in Vermont in the early 1970s. She's an artist and writer, he makes woodenbowls.
Within four years they are parents to three children, two daughters anda red-headed son who fills his pockets with rocks, plays the violin and talksto God. To Eleanor, their New Hampshire farm provides everything she alwayswanted-summer nights watching Cam's softball games, snow days by the fire andthe annual tradition of making paper boats and cork people to launch in thebrook every spring. If Eleanor and Cam don't make love as often as they usedto, they have something that matters more.
Their family. Then comes aterrible accident, caused by Cam's negligence. Unable to forgive him, Eleanoris consumed by bitterness, losing herself in her life as a mother, while Camfinds solace with a new young partner.  Over the decadesthat follow, the five members of this fractured family make surprisingdiscoveries and decisions that occasionally bring them together, and often tearthem apart. Tracing the course of their lives-through the gender transition ofone child and another's choice to completely break with her mother-JoyceMaynard captures a family forced to confront essential, painful truths of itspast, and find redemption in its darkest hours.
A story of holdingon and learning to let go, Count the Ways is an achingly beautiful, poignant, and deeply compassionate novel of home, parenthood, love, andforgiveness.