The Light in Everything

Author Katya Balen
Narrator Danielle Nott, Louis Hill
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date 14 April 2022
Run Time 5 hours and 6 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: General fiction, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Divorce, separation, family break-up, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Emotions, moods and feelings, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: First experiences and growing up, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: New baby, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Physical and mental health conditions.

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Light in Everything by Katya Balen, read by Louis Hill and Danielle Nott.

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'Original, compulsive, uplifting: this is another triumph for Balen' – Alex O'Connell, The Times Children's Book of the Week

'Balen's best book yet: ambitious, funny, spirited, moving, heartfelt and bold all at once. She's a force to be reckoned with' – Ross Montgomery
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From the author of October, October, winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2022, comes a life-affirming story about blended families and learning to find room in your heart for new life and new love.

Tom is still quiet and timid, even though his dad has been gone for nearly two years now.

Zofia is the opposite. Inside her there’s a raging storm that makes her want to fight the whole world until she gets what she wants.

And what she wants is for scaredy-cat Tom to get out of her life. Tom hates loud, unpredictable Zofia just as much, but he’s moving into Zofia’s house. Because his mum and Zofia’s dad are in love … and they’re having a baby.

Tom and Zofia both wish the stupid baby had never happened. But then Tom’s mum gets ill, and it begins to look horribly like their wish might come true …

A story of learning to trust, trying to let go and diving into the unknown with hope in your heart, with a stunning cover illustrated by CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal winner Sydney Smith.
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Critics Review

I love Katya Balen’s clear-eyed, poetic writing style, first encountered in The Space We’re In and October, October. She has a special ability to dig deep into the emotional lives of the children she writes about; she is always privy to their darkest thoughts, always on their side. Original, compulsive, uplifting: this is another triumph for Balen.

The Times Children's Book of the Week

This is Balen's best book yet: ambitious, funny, spirited, moving, heartfelt and bold all at once. She's a force to be reckoned with

Ross Montgomery

This story literally took me by storm. A brave heart-dive into the deep emotions of Tom and Zofia, it’s beautifully told with care and tenderness

Jasbinder Bilan

I loved this book. The deftness with which Katya creates such passionate, funny, broken, brave characters. What an achievement. Katya Balen can break your heart and make you snort with laughter in the same sentence

Natasha Farrant

Katya Balen is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers. This is a beautiful book that will capture you from the first page. An incredible book by an incredible writer. I loved it

Lisa Thompson

A bold, bright story of blended families, and how two remarkable children cope when their lives change dramatically. Katya Balen’s writing fizzes with her trademark originality and voice. This is another stunningly good read from one of my favourite authors

Emma Carroll

I loved this book

Hilary McKay

Heartbreaking and heart-warming in equal measure – warm, compassionate, insightful, lyrical, beautiful and uplifting

Catherine Bruton

I absolutely LOVE all Katya's writing and I adored reading this book. It's such a beautiful, subtle story which just transported me into the worlds of Zofia and Tom and like all the very finest stories, it has left a little shard of those lives within it lodged deep in my heart

Sophie Kirtley

A sensitive story about stitching a new family together from frayed pieces. So vividly imagined you can taste the salt in the air

Aisha Bushby

The Light in Everything is a moving, truthful, unflinching close up of a story, that proves how difficult it can be being a human among other humans, but how rewarding too when you allow yourself the space to breathe

A.F. Harrold

Katya Balen’s October, October is a very special new addition to the shelf and deserves classic status

Times Children's Book of the Week

Quite simply one of the most beautiful books I've ever read

Kiran Millwood Hargrave on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

October, October is fierce with a wild love. It draws you in to its heart, shakes you with a fury, wraps you in a spell of storytelling. In lyrical prose, Katya Balen gives us a modern day heroine filled with courage. I loved every page

Jackie Morris

Wise and bright - I loved it.

Hilary McKay on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

It's EXQUISITE. Read it. Wild yourself. Open your heart to it. Written with the pen of a poet and the soul of Mother Earth. Glorious. It's like nothing else I've ever read. Liz Hyder on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

Liz Hyder on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

The most wonderful, original treasure of a story

Emma Carroll on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

I’ve also just been introduced to the first two stunning children’s books by Katya Balen, both published by Bloomsbury: The Space We’re In and October, October. If you have a middle-grader, or know one, or are one ... treat yourself

Books of the Year, The Spectator

One of the most beautiful children’s books I’ve ever read

Natasha Farrant on OCTOBER, OCTOBER

A tear-jerker about family that shows us things that are important and true, and promotes compassion

The Sunday Times, Children's Book of the Week

This sensitive, heartbreaking story boasts a wonderful narrative voice and secret codes that add another layer of intrigue

Guardian on THE SPACE WE'RE IN

Now and then, and only now and then, a book changes us. The Space We’re In does that. It’s ferocious and it’s visionary

Kevin Crossley-Holland

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