How Lucky: A Novel

Will Leitch

May 2021 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

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 readers 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...

Ratings and reviews

Well written first person but could have been way shorter. Devotes a whole chapter to sma which was fine and educational but then devoted every chapter after to repeat what was focused on in chapter 2. The story itself was 1/4 to 1/3 the actual book. But you'll have a full understanding of sma

an eye opening view of life as a profoundly disabled but relentlessly positive protagonist.

About the author

Will Leitch is a contributing editor at New York magazine, a columnist for The Washington Post and the founder of the late sports website Deadspin. He is the award-winning author of the novels How Lucky and The Time Has Come and two works of nonfiction, God Save the Fan and Are We Winning?, and he writes regularly for The New York Times, NBC News, The Atlantic and MLB.com. He lives in Athens, Georgia, with his wife and two sons.