Synopsis: Living with her extended family all the way over in England in the hope to recover from an eating disorder and get away from family troubles involving her stepmother, 15 year old Daisy is pleasantly surprised with her new life. That is, until war breaks out, and her new family is separated.
My Opinion: This book was written in quite a blunt way, with the use of few commas. It was a quick read with an interesting perspective on England and war. ( )

Meg Rosoff’s acclaimed novel tells the story of Daisy, a teenage American girl who travels to Britain, leaving behind her estranged father and his new family. Sent to stay with her mother’s family in the English countryside, Daisy has to juggle her family problems and eating disorder, while being swept up in a different way of life. She soon grows fond of her eccentric aunt and misfit cousins, especially bonding with the slightly younger Edmund. Everything changes however, when her aunt is out of the country on business. Britain is attacked by some unknown enemy, and left in a chaotic state of war, reminiscent of the country during WW2. The children are left to fend for themselves, providing food and shelter and hiding from the world outside, living and playing in their own little bubble. The war is never far away though, and soon the army arrive, building a base on the farm and separating the children. Daisy is left alone to care for nine year old Piper, and is tormented by her separation from Edmund, with whom she had fallen in love and is determined to find.

Although dealing with war and the delicate subject of love between blood relatives, neither of these is the focus of Rosoff’s story. Rather, they set the scene, and allow the story to follow as it will, through Daisy’s own experiences. She sees some true horror, yet finds in herself a spirit and courage unbeknownst to her.

It is easy to see why this extraordinary book won the Guardian Children’s Fiction award. Rosoff’s writing is remarkable and her storytelling is daring, yet she tackles her subjects with a gentle hand. I can imagine that some readers would be put off by a story that is, in places, quite violent, and that touches on the sexual relationship between two cousins. In Rosoff’s capable hands, this story is a touching one, brimming with emotion, full of beauty and hope. Although I never particularly became attached to any of the characters, the storytelling is so involved that I found myself open-mouthed in horror one minute and holding back tears the next. I'm not sure anything I can say will so this book justice, so you'll just have to read it and make up your own mind.

I for one have been won over by Rosoff’s writing, and will certainly be reading more of her work in the future. A moving read.

This is a haunting story that takes place in an England that has been invaded by an unknown army in a global war waged by unidentified terrorist groups. Daisy has been sent to her deceased mother's relatives in England because she suffers from anorexia, although that term is never used. Her father has a new wife who is expecting and has been convinced that Daisy would be better off with her cousins. However, Daisy's aunt leaves on a quick trip to Sweden just before the war breaks out so the children are on their own indefinitely to run the family farm and look after each other. All the children seem to have a telepathic connection which makes their bonds closer than ordinary cousins so none are them are shocked when Daisy falls hopelessly in love with her cousin Edmond. The first several weeks of her stay are spent in a romantic trance without the oversight or counsel of parents or community.

Eventually, the children are discovered when the army needs their house for a base. The two girls, Daisy and her 9-year-old cousin Piper, are sent to live with an Army couple while the boys are sent to another location. The rest of the story details Daisy and Piper's struggle to find their way back home to Edmond and his brothers.

The author does an excellent job of putting forth the difficulties of living and surviving in a state of siege in a way that is thought-provoking without being preachy. Daisy's observations of adults and society are often humorous but also honest. An unusual story. I highly recommend it. ( )

Punctuation-unneccesary! Taboos-exposed! Characters-absorbing! Style-relentless! Result-genius!
I can't even remember why I picked this one up off the shelf-it completely cut the queue in my 'to read' pile, but I'm glad it did. A cross between-if you can believe it-Enid Blyton, John Marsden and countless others-all combined by a stream of consciousness prose style and some really engaging characters.
OK, some people will get annoyed that the paragraphs and sentences are the same length, and that she invents compound words rather than using a thesaurus, but it is the extremely authentic voice of 15-year old heroine Daisy that comes through loud and clear on the pages of Meg Rosoff's debut novel.
Set in the not very distant future, Manhattanite Daisy is sent to England to live with her cousins in a rural village in England due to the threat of war. War breaks out, but time seems to stand still during Daisy's first, magical English Summer and for a time the conflict seems far away and quite irrelevant. The storyline disposes with any responsible adults pretty quickly leaving the cousins alone to deal with the confusion and brutality of the war when it finally comes.
To cope, the cousins become very close during this time, and in the case of Daisy and cousin Edmond very, very close. Rosoff's skill is evident as she makes this incestuous relationship seem charming and completely right rather than a little creepy.
The family is separated, both from each other and their home and the second half of the book documents their trials as they attempt to find each other. It's not pretty (what war story is?) but Daisy shows herself to be a resourceful and resilient character with many more nature survival skills than you would expect from a native New Yorker! Daisy is funny too, having the kind of quick wit typical of many much loved literary characters.
I won't give the ending away, but don't be put off by the fact that it's in the teen section. It's themes-though not gratuitously depicted-are for an older teen to adult audience and as there's little to no punctuation you'll have it finished in no time! ( )

Fifteen-year-old Daisy leaves the chaos of a world she knows -- New York -- for a completely new sort of chaos: one with her cousins in England. Desperate to get away from her father and new stepmother, who's pregnant, Daisy hopes she'll find some sort of salvation and calm away from the city.

Instead, she finds herself in the middle of someone else's war.

Daisy resides with Osbert, Edmond, Isaac and their sister Piper, whom Daisy comes to rely on as a source of strength to carry on. After The Enemy invades, Daisy's Aunt Penn is unable to return to her children and niece from a business trip in Norway. Left to their own devices, the kids manage to keep up the daily tasks of running their farm -- and look to people in a neighboring village for news on the war. Time passes with the teens in a state of limbo -- there's no adult to order them about, but there's also dwindling food supplies. It's in this state of freedom -- their absolute isolation -- that Daisy is finally able to acknowledge the feelings she has for Edmond, sleepy-eyed and slow to smile. The love she feels for him suddenly eclipses all else.

But then the war comes home. The rag-tag groups of civilian armies in England start to roam the countryside, unsure of their orders in a nation now occupied by enemy forces. The kids are separated -- and what follows is their attempt, often futile, to get back home.

With a stream-of-consciousness style and lack of any quotation marks, How I Live Now serves as Daisy's narrative -- the way she recounts the days, weeks and months that led from her first meeting with cousin Edmond to their wandering around the countryside, starving and desperate, as The Occupation of England raged on. The novel is full of strong, sweeping imagery -- much of it disturbing. There was such a sense of foreboding through the book, I actually felt my hands trembling as Daisy approached a farm, looking for survivors.

I knew this couldn't end well. Or could it?

How I Live Now is simultaneously dreamy, moving, terrifying, surreal and realistic. It's a survivor's story -- and that's not limited to Daisy alone. Anyone growing up in the age of terrorism -- which is all of us -- looks at the world differently, and I could easily see parts of current American culture in the book, which is set in an indeterminate time. The war is never totally explained, though it seems like WWIII, but it doesn't really need to be -- nor does Daisy's obsession with food and starvation, which is eventually altered completely.

The book was a bit disturbing, and I can't imagine I'll re-read it anytime soon. But, like Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, it was an important, powerful story. ( )