How I Live Now
by Meg Rosoff
On This Page
Description
"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 show more 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.
From the Hardcover edition.. show less
Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
selkie_girl Teenagers are caught in the middle of a war and decide to fight back.
Also recommended by meggyweg
40
tmspinks Similar 'apocalypse comes to sleepy England' theme, but with a more SF edge.
30
wonderlake Strong female teenagers traverse war-torn environments in the near future
31
amysisson Young adults struggling to survive in war-torn England -- although different wars (one real, one fictional) in different times! These books are different, yet I really feel that if you love one, you'll love the other.
20
amysisson Although ultimately the books are different, the love felt by the viewpoint characters seems similar, and there is a certain unusual poetic quality to the writing. Both are glorious books.
20
faither Similar writing styles.
wonderlake teenage girls coming of age in a day after tomorrow scenario
Member Reviews
I had no idea what I was getting into. I've forgotten why I chose this book in the first place, but I gave it a try anyway because I was starved for a new book to read, and boy oh boy was I in for a huge surprise (ahem). Aside from the icky love story, this was a well-written, engaging read that you have to see through to the end in one sitting. You just don't know what to expect. One minute, the characters are all happy and much too loving to each other and then, they're witnessing two murders firsthand the next. I love it! It was a good balance of suspense, adventure and romance, but I admit I was drawn towards the suspense and adventure parts way more. It's one of those "what in the ever loving f**k did I just read" books, and I show more don't regret picking it out of randomness. show less
Fifteen-year-old, anorexic, New Yorker Daisy's pregnant step-mother thinks it would be best for everyone if Daisy spent some time visiting her cousins in the English countryside, so off she goes. She loves her cousins - older & wiser Osbert, young & reverential Piper, cryptic Isaac, and especially sensitive Edmond. She loves their lifestyle - living on a farm with very little supervision from Aunt Penn. At first, she loves it even more when World War III breaks out and Aunt Penn can't return home from a business trip to Oslo. There is plenty of food on the farm, and fun things to do like fishing in the river and walking to town to get rations and having copious underage sex with your cousin. And who cares, because the invading army show more marching through the English countryside is miles and miles away. As long as they have each other everything will be just fine.
What a moving book. Daisy's voice is vivid and the stream-of-consciousness writing style is perfectly reflective of a 15-year-old's thoughts without being dumbed down. It's really hard to pinpoint a genre here - I wouldn't call it "science fiction" though it takes place in the near future and has some not-quite-realistic elements, but maybe "magical realism" or "unreliable narrator fiction" would fit better. The point ends up being, at least for me, that when World War III hits, none of that stuff - bed-times, genres, parental supervision, narrator reliability, incest - will matter at all. show less
What a moving book. Daisy's voice is vivid and the stream-of-consciousness writing style is perfectly reflective of a 15-year-old's thoughts without being dumbed down. It's really hard to pinpoint a genre here - I wouldn't call it "science fiction" though it takes place in the near future and has some not-quite-realistic elements, but maybe "magical realism" or "unreliable narrator fiction" would fit better. The point ends up being, at least for me, that when World War III hits, none of that stuff - bed-times, genres, parental supervision, narrator reliability, incest - will matter at all. show less
I loved this book, and would happily recommend it to anyone wanting a thought provoking read, especially as we seem to stand teetering on the brink of war and conflict all the time. It makes us think, how might we cope, how might the children? I found the unconventional nature of the narrative compelling, somehow drawing me in as a reader rather than being off-putting as I have read in so many reviews. Be prepared for stream-of-consciousness prose, with untagged dialogue when reading this book, and simply let it carry you along. I believe it's when we can't step outside the 'expected' that our enjoyment of uniqueness is spoiled.
This is a "love it or hate it" kind of book. I loved it. Daisy is annoying and self absorbed, which makes her like every teenager I've ever spent time with. But she learns and grows during the reading and I found myself very fond of her by the end of the tale. It's a gritty and interesting war story, in more ways than one. Daisy is at war with her parents, her life, and most of all, herself. She is shipped off to the English countryside to live with an aunt and cousins that she's never met. Her aunt has to leave for business and while she's gone, England is invaded and the world goes to war. Now Daisy's outside life matches her inside life. Her survival is in question, and she finds that living is more important to her than she show more thought.
If you like gritty survival stories, try this. It is well written and has a unique voice. show less
If you like gritty survival stories, try this. It is well written and has a unique voice. show less
Elizabeth (known as ‘Daisy’) is a teenager from Manhattan shipped off to her English country cousins in advance of the birth of her “evil” stepmother’s first child. She is cynical, world-weary, anorexic, and angry. And you might think she is about as marginalized and isolated as a young person can be. Until war breaks out in various countries including Britain and America and Daisy becomes even more cut off. Existentially cut off. Except that by then she has already bonded with her cousins who have become the family she never knew she missed. Indeed the bonds are so immediate and visceral that they seem to be able to share each other’s thoughts.
Meg Rosoff has created a thoroughly believable voice in her first-person show more narrator, Daisy. I loved her New York sensibility and her observations (never overdone) of some of the differences between life in America and life in England. Daisy journeys through an emotional as well as a physical landscape as she moves from cynicism to friendship to love, fear, desperation, horror and more. It is a fast-moving spectacle and all the reader can do is hold on with both hands. Recommended. show less
Meg Rosoff has created a thoroughly believable voice in her first-person show more narrator, Daisy. I loved her New York sensibility and her observations (never overdone) of some of the differences between life in America and life in England. Daisy journeys through an emotional as well as a physical landscape as she moves from cynicism to friendship to love, fear, desperation, horror and more. It is a fast-moving spectacle and all the reader can do is hold on with both hands. Recommended. show less
Well, what with all the people clutching their pearls over the relationship between first cousins, I failed to pick up the fact that this is set in World War Three, and was in too deep to stop reading by the time it became apparent. I probably wouldn't have chosen it had I realised, because it wasn't particularly soothing to read about the collapse of civilisation at a time like this. But this really is a phenomenally good book, possibly the best one I've read this year. At the beginning I was reminded mostly of I Capture The Castle; later it went more Station Eleven. Well worth reading, but possibly not now.
Rosoff gets the voice of Daisy, her protagonist, just right. We learn enough about her prior to the bombing to like her and worry about her, alone with her cousins on a dilapidated English farm. Daisy experiences the end of things in a very believable way. She neither understands nor much cares about what is happening in far away London, much less how her father and her evil stepmother are faring in the US. "The first thing that happened wasn't our fault. That was a bomb that went off in the middle of a big train station in London the day after Aunt Penn went to Oslo and something like seven or seventy thousand people got killed."
That "seven or seventy thousand" says it all.
Like us, Daisy's read her share of dystopias, so thinks she show more has things under control when they buy canned food and water in a local shop. What is at first a lovely adventure quickly darkens, however, as the reality of world war sinks in. Rosoff handles the intrusion very well, coming in the guise of a local physician looking for drugs. She doesn't really get to the background of what happened until Chapter 16, and by then we're already deeply invested in seeing the cousins reunited. Daisy them has to find a way to reunite and things begin to quickly disintegrate.
Her eye for pot-War landscape is sharp and often beautiful. Here is Daisy with her cousin Piper, eluding both the home army and "The Enemy":
So we rested. Then we walked some more. Past another burned house. Past a child's shoe abandoned on the path. We kept walking. Then we rested. And walked. We didn't see anybody but there were signs they'd been there. Discarded clothing. Paper. A dead cat. We ate some of the food and drank some of the water and only occasionally wondered what the hell we thought we were going to find at the end of the road."
Overall, I was reminded of the wonderful [b:Z for Zachariah|69477|Z for Zachariah|Robert C. O'Brien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347675635s/69477.jpg|2070709], which has the same spare voice, limited view (only what that character would actually know or intuit about the post-apocalyptic world) and lyrical writing. show less
That "seven or seventy thousand" says it all.
Like us, Daisy's read her share of dystopias, so thinks she show more has things under control when they buy canned food and water in a local shop. What is at first a lovely adventure quickly darkens, however, as the reality of world war sinks in. Rosoff handles the intrusion very well, coming in the guise of a local physician looking for drugs. She doesn't really get to the background of what happened until Chapter 16, and by then we're already deeply invested in seeing the cousins reunited. Daisy them has to find a way to reunite and things begin to quickly disintegrate.
Her eye for pot-War landscape is sharp and often beautiful. Here is Daisy with her cousin Piper, eluding both the home army and "The Enemy":
So we rested. Then we walked some more. Past another burned house. Past a child's shoe abandoned on the path. We kept walking. Then we rested. And walked. We didn't see anybody but there were signs they'd been there. Discarded clothing. Paper. A dead cat. We ate some of the food and drank some of the water and only occasionally wondered what the hell we thought we were going to find at the end of the road."
Overall, I was reminded of the wonderful [b:Z for Zachariah|69477|Z for Zachariah|Robert C. O'Brien|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347675635s/69477.jpg|2070709], which has the same spare voice, limited view (only what that character would actually know or intuit about the post-apocalyptic world) and lyrical writing. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
Fifteen-year-old Daisy, an anorexic, acerbic New Yorker, falls instantly in love with her English cousins' farm and with her English cousin Edmond. Idyllic love story abruptly becomes horrific survival tale when an unnamed enemy power invades the country. A captivating and deeply satisfying first novel. Review 9/04.
"How I Live Now." The Horn Book Magazine Jan.-Feb. 2005: 16.
"How I Live Now." The Horn Book Magazine Jan.-Feb. 2005: 16.
added by kthomp25
Lists
Best Dystopias
280 works; 277 members
Recommend the 20 best books you've read in the last five years
2,167 works; 605 members
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
774 works; 100 members
An End of the World Reading List
63 works; 4 members
A Novel Cure
742 works; 23 members
Modern Books for Young Adults
87 works; 11 members
Puffin Books 70th anniversary handbook recommendations
537 works; 10 members
Books Read in 2014
2,341 works; 86 members
Top Five Books of 2014
1,064 works; 397 members
Most Popular Young Adult Lit on LT
100 works; 4 members
Reading history in Children's Books
78 works; 3 members
Top Five Books of 2021
604 works; 181 members
Books Read in 2022
5,164 works; 113 members
BBC World Book Club
261 works; 5 members
Author Information
24+ Works 8,206 Members
Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 16, 1956. She studied at Harvard University, but left for England in 1977 to take classes at Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design. She returned to finish her degree in English and fine arts at Harvard University. She worked in New York City for 10 years in publishing and show more advertising, before moving to England. Her first novel, How I Live Now, was published in 2004 and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Her other novels include What I Was, The Bride's Farewell, There Is No Dog, Moose Baby, and Picture Me Gone. Just in Case won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. She won the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She is also the author of a picture book entitled Meet Wild Boars and co-author of a non-fiction book entitled London Guide: Your Passport to Great Travel. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Penguin Celebrations (28)
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- How I Live Now
- Original title
- How I Live Now
- Original publication date
- 2004
- People/Characters
- Daisy; Piper; Edmond; Isaac; Osbert; Aunt Penn (show all 7); Davina
- Important places
- London, England, UK; England, UK; New York, New York, USA; New York, USA; USA
- Related movies
- How I Live Now (2013 | IMDb)
- 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... (show all) 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.)And that's how I live now.
- Blurbers
- Haddon, Mark
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 4,233
- Popularity
- 3,568
- Reviews
- 253
- Rating
- (3.73)
- Languages
- 13 — Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Slovenian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 71
- ASINs
- 11