How I Live Now (2004)

by Meg Rosoff

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English (159) Dutch (2) Spanish (1) French (1) All languages (163)

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Showing 1-5 of 159 (next | show all)

I need someone to confirm that Lynda Barry really wrote this, not Meg Rosoff. The voice is such a bothersome rip of Cruddy.

I couldn't get past it, and then I did, and ended up riveted. And it still mystifies me that there is an unapologetic incestuous relationship at the heart of the story.

Pretty amazing, but not a happy kind of scene.

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usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |

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usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |

Ok YA book. The reader's voice in the audio version was a good match for the teenage protagonist, which was not necessarily a good thing, as it made her--ambiguity intentional--sound slightly annoying. Funniest moment was the pronunciation of Zabar's to rhyme with Babar's, when any New Yorker (which is what the protagonist is) would know it sounds like "gay bars". (

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lxydis | May 11, 2013 |

This was intense. I could feel what Daisy was feeling to such a degree that it was disturbing. It affected me greatly and will stay with me for a while. An excellent description of war that was enhanced, or even defined, by the way it sprang from the background to grab the story then alternately slipped away, lurked and reached out again. The cousins, and even Aunt Penn, who didn't play a significant role, were great characters seen through Daisy's eyes. The connection that Daisy felt to them was portrayed so well and added so much to the emotion of the story. I love the way this was done. I'll read this again. (

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Yona | May 2, 2013 |

I'm about halfway through and I've only had a few hours on the subway to read it---it's totally breaking my heart and scaring the crap out of me already.
Another so-called "young adult" fiction novel...I'm so intrigued by what makes a young adult novel "young adult." I'm almost 30, but I completely relate to these kids...I think most people would...
Anyway, I digress. This book is about a 15 year old New York girl (suffering from Anorexia) who gets sent to live with her cousins in the English Countryside. Shortly after she arrives, England is invaded by an unnamed terrorist threat and all hell starts to break loose. Before it reaches their country life however, our narrator, Daisy, gets to spend several heavenly, lazy weeks in the sun with her beloved new cousins and their bevy of animals.
The sinister war that's waging in the background starts to creep up and suddenly it's upon them. It's terrifying and very realistic. It reminds me of those children's novels I used to read about Holocaust survivors, where the story moves from Idyllic childhood to sad to terrifying before you realize what's happening.

Interesting perspective for young people, I suppose...may make them consider what really goes on in war-torn countries.
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KristySP | Apr 21, 2013 |

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Canonical title

How I Live Now

Original title

Information from the Italian Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to the English one.

How I Live Now

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People/Characters

Important places

New York, New York, USA

New York, USA

USA

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Awards and honors

Printz Award (2005)

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (2004)

Branford Boase Award (2005)

ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2005)

Booktrust Teenage Prize Shortlist (2005)

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Epigraph

Dedication

For Debby

First words

My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that.

Quotations

You can imagine it was the social event of the day, everyone competing for the worst piece of news.

All in all I felt a little guilty about the fact that while us kids had been living the Life of Riley, a whole bunch of other people had been scurrying around like lunatics trying to keep the Social Fabric from Unraveling and my personal belief was that there were too many problems to think about and not enough people to sort them out.

Staying alive was what we did to pass the time.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Haddon, Mark

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Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

How I Live Now

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

An American girl is sent to stay with her English cousins for the summer. Their lives are torn apart when World War III breaks out and their aunt disappears.

Haiku summary

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0553376055, Paperback)

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 stays at her Aunt Penn's country farmhouse for the summer 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 mesmerized 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 and Edmond are separated 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 Daisy's pain, living without Edmond, is tangible.

Rosoff's writing style is both brilliant and frustrating. Her descriptions are wonderful, as is her ability to portray the emotions of her characters. However, her long sentences and total lack of punctuation for dialogue can be 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. (Age 14 and over) --John McLay

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:38:09 -0400)

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▾Library descriptions

To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land. "Every war has turning points and every person too." Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy. As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way. A riveting and astonishing story.… (more)

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