How I Live Now - Softcover

Rosoff, Meg

3.58

45,190 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141346566 ISBN 13: 9780141346564

Publisher: Penguin, 2013

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How I Live Now is an original and poignant book by Meg Rosoff, now a film tie-in edition to celebrate the release of the major film starring Saoirse Ronan.

How I Live Now is the powerful and engaging story of Daisy, the precocious New Yorker and her English cousin Edmond, torn apart as war breaks out in London, from the multi award-winning Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now has been adapted for the big screen by Kevin Macdonald.

Fifteen-year-old Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her, and now her dad has sent her away for the summer, to live in the English countryside with cousins she's never even met.

There she'll discover what real love is: something violent, mysterious and wonderful. There her world will be turned upside down and a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces.

How will Daisy live then?

'Fresh, honest, rude, funny. I put it down with tears on my face' - Julie Myerson, Guardian

'Assured, powerful, engaging . . . you will want to read everything that Rosoff is capable of writing' - Observer

'An unforgettable adventure' - Sunday Times

Bestselling author Meg Rosoff has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her first novel How I Live Now (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). Her other novels, Just in Case (winner of the 2007 Carnegie Medal), The Bride's Farewell and What I Was which was described by The Times as 'Samuel Beckett on ecstasy', are also available from Puffin. Follow Meg on Twitter @megrosoff.

Also by Meg Rosoff:

How I Live Now; Just In Case; What I Was; The Bride's Farewell; There is No Dog

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Review:

Possibly one of the most talked about books of the year, Meg Rosoff’s novel for young adults is the winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2004. Heralded by some as the next best adult crossover novel since Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, who himself has given the book a thunderously good quote, this author’s debut is undoubtedly stylish, readable and fascinating.

Rosoff’s story begins in modern day London, slightly in the future, and as its heroine has a 15-year-old Manhattanite called Daisy. She’s picked up at the airport by Edmond, her English cousin, a boy in whose life she is destined to become intricately entwined. Daisy is staying for the summer in her Aunt Penn’s country farmhouse with Edmond and her other cousins. They spend some idyllic weeks together--often alone with Aunt Penn away travelling in Norway. Daisy’s cousins seem to have an almost telepathic bond, and Daisy is mesmerised by Edmond and soon falls in love with him.

But their world changes forever when an unnamed aggressor invades England and begins a years-long occupation. Daisy is parted from Edmond when soldiers take over their home, and Daisy and Piper, her younger cousin, must travel to another place to work. Their experiences of occupation are never kind and always hard. Daisy’s pain, living without Edmond, is tangible.

Rosoff’s writing style is both brilliant and frustrating. Her descriptions and ability to portray the emotions of her characters are wonderful. Her long sentences and total lack of speech marks for dialogue is, however, exhausting. Her narrative is deeply engaging and yet a bit unbelievable. The end of the book is dramatic, but too sudden. The book has a raw, unfinished feel about it, yet that somehow adds to the experience of reading it. It’s flawed but unmissable. (Age 14 and over) --John McLay

Review:

Daring, wise, and sensitive (People magazine)

Powerful and engaging ...a likely future classic (The Observer)

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