At Home in the World

The daughter of brilliant, adoring parents, Joyce Maynard grew up writing, publishing her first book at age eighteen. But there were stories about which she could never write: her father's drinking, her mother's ambition to see Joyce succeed, and her year-long relationship, at age eighteen, with a mesmerizing man thirty-five years her elder: the legendary writer J.D. Salinger. This unflinchingly honest memoir explores the pain and confusion of early heartbreak as well as the wisdom, redemption, and triumph acquired when - seeing her own daughter turn eighteen - Joyce Maynard at last embraces the disquieting truths of her history and dares to break free of paralyzing shame and silence.