Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214798 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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

Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
a magical and utterly faultless voice

Time Out
the best children's novel for adults since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Customer Reviews

a children's book that made me cry
Motherless Daisy is 15 years old when she is sent by her re-married father from New York to rural England to live with her 4 cousins, whose mother is mainly working or absent, so the children have to fend for themselves. Even though it takes the girl from the Big Apple some time to get used to live in the countryside of another country, she soon discovers that she has not only found new friends, but also a soulmate and lover in her cousin Edmond. But then disaster strikes: war breaks out and slowly but surely the children get dragged into the conflict and the family falls apart. All through the ordeal Daisy is accompanied by her younger cousin Piper and she definitely feels the presence of Edmond, who they are trying to find during a long, harrowing hike through the countryside in which they try to stay away from the enemy. When Daisy finally finds Edmond back it is too little, too late...

A beautiful book, very much written from the perspective of Daisy. The book starts out light and funny iwith the observations of an American town girl on English life and customs, but it gets more and more grim when the war with the (unidentified) enemy breaks out and things go from bad to worse. A book for adolescents with a light and a dark side.

An engaging, exciting and emotional read!
`How I live now' is an intriguing and well thought out novel about a teenage girl called Daisy living in New York. She is sent by her father to live with her cousins who she has never met in the English countryside. She falls in love with one of her cousins, Edmond. When a war breaks out she learns what love really is and how it is tested throughout her journey.

The story is based around the character Daisy, who narrates the story, so you are constantly aware of her feeling and thoughts. In parts I almost feel that I was her or know her as a person, as Rosoff uses an effective writing style to match her personality shown across in this story. The genre is mainly romance as it is the story is primarily about the effects of love. The style is powerful and gripping, which fits perfectly with the event with take place. Throughout the book you are kept interested and have the need to read on to find out what happens next. This is highlighted more successfully by splitting the story into two parts, so that you only get to find out answers near the end of the book. The pace changes throughout and slows down due to the description, which gives a needed break from the adventure.

Rosoff achieves a great deal of passion and emotion in this novel, portraying great emotions of Daisy. She succeeds in explaining about Daisy's love for Edmond and how sometimes you can meet your soul mate. However the end slightly disappoints the rest of the story and personally I found it quite hard to understand where the love had gone for Edmond and how in the beginning Daisy and Edmond had an almost telepathic relationship, but this seemed to have disappear. In some cases this slightly adds to the experience of this book as it explains how traumatic events can have an effect on people's emotions deep down, not just on the surface.

This book is a great read for young teenagers to enjoy. An amazing, yet touching story!

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I loved this book, and I am extremly hard to please.
It was bought for me by a friend who happened to pick it up in a bookshop, read the first few lines and leg it to the tills, fast. He's now taken to buying it for everyone he
knows who likes books and I think that I will do the same.
From the second I picked it up, I was completly inthralled,I read it from cover to cover in one sitting without moving. Meg Rosoff's prose is staggeringly beautiful, moving and evocative, her characters instantly exsist in your mind and on every page you will find a sentance that makes you stop reading and just stare.
I'm glad though, that I hadn't read the synopsis here, anyone who has read it will understand my huge shock as the situation the characters find themselfs
in becomes clear. I never knew where this book was going for one second. At one point it is a dreamy, languid love story, at another a moving tale of family understanding and devotion, another, the story of teenage emotion and confusion, then it becomes a genuinly terrifying battle against an unnamed enemy, then a shocking, visceral tale of violence. I can't quite see how this is a book
just for young adults, allthough the main protagonist is a teenagerthe themes are relevent to all ages. This is a fabulous book, and most people I know have read it all in one or two sittings.
Please read it, you won't regret it.
On, another note, the hardback edition is very lovely and worth
the extra quids if you like that sort of thing.