How I Live Now

This is a great book. The voice is fantastic, the character of Daisy charismatic, complex, humorous and engaging.Daisy is self- named, rejecting her father's name for her. Opening paragraph, like a prologue but very brief:My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or dead person, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go.But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins, everything changed. Part of that was because of the war...War is a strong word, the scene is immediately set: the drama of a new location, new family, and a war thrown into the mix as well.The cousins are the key to this new stage in Daisy's life; weird, independent, open hearted and minded, empathetic to the point of telepathic, animal whisperers, half magical. Daisy forms an entirely inappropriate, passionate and profound relationship with her younger too closely related cousin Edmond. His twin, Isaac, is mostly silent. Their younger sister Piper is as innocent and thoughtful and loving and guileless as Edmond himself. Osbert, the oldest, goes to regular school and is the most nearly normal.Then their idyllic summer is interrupted by the advent of war.Mostly I love Daisy’s dry, penetrating, honest humour, but also the way in which her relationship with nine year old Piper, and being thrust into a position of responsibility, forces her to move out from herself, grow up and beyond her previous egotistical concerns. Plus the end is deeply moving: Edmond’s openness to others, his deep empathy and concern, leave him terribly wounded, emotionally, by the things he has seen. And Daisy’s job, at last, is simply to be there, and heal.If there has to be a caveat – and there always is – it is very minor. The war, in the care with which no enemy powers are named, and no one ever knows what exactly is going on, is a bit too wooly to be entirely convincing. This is obviously an authorial ruse to create a situation, while not pointing the finger at anyone in particular. It is well managed enough, though, not to alienate the reader too much.Charming, witty, big hearted, thought provoking: a novel to stay with you, and I predict a classic.Five stars.Also award winning - others agree!!!Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2004Branford Boase Award 2005Michael L. Printz Award 2005Der Luchs des Jahres Book Prize 2005Julia Ward Howe Prize (Boston Authors Club) 2005And see there is a movie due out soon too - in post-production according to IMDB. Wonder how will transfer to moviedom? Tricky as major strength of novel is in its distinctive voice.

i stumbled onto this book on amazon and randomly decided to give it a try. i was a little distracted by the writing style at first, but the middle and ending were fantastic and made it well worth the read. and you'll have to excuse me for including so many quotes on this one, but there were just soo many good ones that really encapsulate the writing and the story.the narrative reads very quickly with a never-ending run on sentence feel, which gives the impression that you are lis...more i stumbled onto this book on amazon and randomly decided to give it a try. i was a little distracted by the writing style at first, but the middle and ending were fantastic and made it well worth the read. and you'll have to excuse me for including so many quotes on this one, but there were just soo many good ones that really encapsulate the writing and the story.the narrative reads very quickly with a never-ending run on sentence feel, which gives the impression that you are listening to a story rather than reading one. aside from the grammatical nightmare that Rosoff created, she has the tendency to capitalize random phrases for emphasis, for example, "by the time I finished the letter I'd convinced myself that This Was the Life oh yes and Boy Had I Lucked Out". although the very stylistic writing is a little distracting at first, it becomes pseudo-normal and is at times hilarious in its stumbling randomness. the characteristic rambling is told from the perspective of 15 year-old Daisy and really brings her character to life, making her very tangible to the reader. the story begins when she is sent away by her father and evil step-mother to England for a while to visit her four cousins and Aunt Penn."I... thought about my old home which unfortunately led to thinking about Davina the Diabolical, who sucked my father's soul out through his you know what and then got herself knocked up with the devil's spawn which, when it pops out, Leah and I are going to call Damian even if it's a girl."from the moment that Daisy's airplane lands and she is greeted at the airport, it is obvious that this extended family is unique, with some telepathic tendencies, and gifts for maintaining wildly fertile plants and animals. of the family, 14-year-old Edmond, with "the CIGARETTE and hair that looked like he'd cut it himself with a hatchet in the dead of night" and his younger sister Piper become the centerpieces to the book. the relationship between Edmond and Daisy quickly becomes complicated as she acknowledges that she is having some incestuous feelings towards him, which, despite the subject, somehow manages to read as un-creepy as it possibly could.when war breaks out and England is occupied, with Aunt Penn away on a business trip, the cousins find themselves alone and secluded in the countryside. at first, things amble along in the relative utopian lifestyle that the family maintain and Edmond and Daisy secure their disconcerting, and yet lovely relationship with each other."The war... provided a perfect limbo in which two people who were too young and too related could start kissing without anything or anyone making us stop."in time, however, the secluded country home is found to be useful to the local military and the family is forced apart. Daisy and Piper are moved away from the boys and we follow them in their journey to be reunited with the rest of the family. through ups and downs and some oddly amusing moments, Rosoff brings us to a magical conclusion that you will just have to read to understand. she writes simply of the poverty and scarcity that only war can bring, and with the fanciful characters, makes even the sad parts enjoyable."We got flyers in with our food saying to boil all our water and Be Extra Careful When Handling Knives, Tools or Firearms Because Minor Injuries Could Lead to Infection and Death. Which struck me as extremely amusing given that we're supposedly in the middle of a war, which usually has the same effect."once i got comfortable in the style, i really did find myself enjoying this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, playful read. the sincerity of the writing, even through the awkward moments of incest, makes you love the characters and really miss them once the reading is through. ultimately, this is a story of love and finding meaning in a life that is full of sad things, and in that, Rosoff delivers and delivers well."I just know that he needs peace and he needs to be loved. And both those things I can do."for more of my reviews, please visit [...]

This (apocalyptical?) story is told by a teenage girl which makes it easy to read and funny. There’s a beginning of a world conflict and she finds herself stuck with her cousins in the English countryside. After this experience this New York girl will never remain the same.

Was a Christmas present for my 13 year old niece. She specially requested it and was excited to receive it.

Este era el libro de lectura obligada para el verano en inglés de 2º de ESO. Le gustó mucho!

would be a perfect story if not for the familial relations that disturb me but also i guess daisy had some problems

The book is super interesting at all times, from beginning to end, the author knows how to narrate everything that is happening in each moment. What live the main protagonist is incredible. Truly a Third World War would affect the world. This book has become one of my favorites and I really recommend it a lot. It deserves five stars.