How I Live Now was Meg Rosoff's debut novel published by Penguin in 2004. It won the Guardian and Branford Boase Awards and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Fiction as well as the Whitbread. It garnered the sort of rave acclaim most writers only ever dream of. Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, championed it right from the beginning, saying, 'That rare, rare thing, a first novel with a sustained, magical and utterly faultless voice. After five pages I knew that she could persuade me to believe almost anything.'
At heart a story about falling in love, How I Live Now captures the confusion of adolescence especially at a time when the world is turned upside down. When Daisy first arrives in England she falls in love with a new way of life and also, passionately, with her cousin Edmund. When war breaks out, the two teenagers are swept apart. Everyone is struggling for survival. Daisy and Edmund both come through but while Daisy copes with the altered state of things, Edmund’s suffering when his world implodes changes him. He loses a part of himself that can never be replaced. How I Live Now subtly charts a jagged journey of finding out which captures the confusion of adolescence, especially when the world is turned upside down.
| Suitable For: | |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Daisy is sent from New York to England to spend a summer with cousins she has never met. They are Isaac, Edmond, Osbert and Piper. And two dogs and a goat. She's never met anyone quite like them before - and, as a dreamy English summer progresses, Daisy finds herself caught in a timeless bubble. It seems like the perfect summer. But their lives are about to explode.
Falling in love is just the start of it. War breaks out - a war none of them understands, or really cares about, until it lands on their doorstep. The family is separated. The perfect summer is blown apart. Daisy's life is changed forever - and the world is too.
Meg Rosoff's best-selling, prize-winning novel will be brought to life on the big screen this October.
Directed by Academy Award winner, Kevin Macdonald (best know for directing Bafta and Oscar winning The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void), and starring Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Harley Bird and Anna Chancellor, the movie will be released in the UK on 4th October 2013.
To keep up with the film news and gossip visit the How I Live Now Movie facebook page.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed How I Live Now and determined it is suitable for children aged 11-14 years old
How I Live Now features in the following genres: Gritty Reads, Recommendations, PSHE: Sexuality, Gender and Relationships, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommended Children's eBooks, Romance / Relationship Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Featured Books for 13+ readers, Featured Books for 11+ readers
How I Live Now is available in Paperback
How I Live Now was written by Meg Rosoff and published by Penguin Books Ltd
How I Live Now has 210 pages
£8.09
