This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

In 2011, when she was in her late 50s, beloved author and journalist Joyce Maynard met the first true partner she had ever known. Jim Barringer asked real questions and gave real answers; he loved to see Maynard shine, both in and out of the spotlight; and he didn't mind the mess she made in the kitchen. He was not the husband Maynard imagined, but he quickly became the partner she had always dreamed of. 

Then, just after their one-year wedding anniversary, her new husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During the 19 months that followed, as they battled his illness together, she discovered for the first time what it really meant to be a couple—to be a true partner and to have one.

This is their story. Charting the course through their whirlwind romance, a marriage cut short by tragedy, and Maynard's return to singleness on new terms, The Best of Us is a heart-wrenching, ultimately life-affirming reflection on coming to understand true love through the experience of great loss.