How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

What's it all about?

Daisy, an anorexic 15-year-old girl from Manhattan, is sent away to live with her Aunt Penn in an idyllic part of rural England. This suits Daisy just fine, as she is glad to escape her father's new wife and the spawn she will soon be delivering! Daisy's mother had died in childbirth, so going to say with her late mother's sister also gives her an opportunity to find out more about the woman she 'murdered'.




Murdered?!

That's how Daisy puts it; she does tend to be quite melodramatic - as do lots of teenagers - and as Rosoff narrates the story with Daisy's voice, we often view the events of the story in extremes. When Daisy first meets her cousins, she instantly warms to the impossibly sweet Piper, as well as developing more robust feelings Edmond.

How I see Edmond.

Their life at the farm is carefree, and when Aunt Penn travels to Oslo to try and avert a Third World War, it becomes one big adult-free adventure.  Then the war breaks. Aunt Penn cannot return, international communications break down and rationing begins.  Osbert, the eldest of the cousins wants to help the war effort by playing spies, so the younger cousins end up largely left to their own devices. As the occupying forces gradually take hold, things get much more serious for the family.

Third World War

Although Rosoff doesn't ever name the enemy, as readers, we become increasingly aware of their presence. It starts with a bomb in a train station, where "like 7,000 or 70,000 people got killed". Daisy is not really bothered by the war at this point (clearly!), as it doesn't affect her, and even when Aunt Penn gets detained, and the rationing starts, she still doesn't perceive it as a problem.  It is only when the family home is commandeered by a troop of soldiers and the children are evacuated in different directions that the war becomes a real and dangerous and violent thing.

Real and dangerous and violent?

Pretty much. Although this has been published as a Young Adult book, it certainly deals with some very grown up issues and doesn't sugarcoat the atrocities of war.  In fact, I would say that although it features a group of teens as the central characters, it really is more of an adult book, written in a beautiful "meandering river" of a tale. Despite Daisy's tough-talking, cynical view of her world and the people that inhabit it, the punctuation (or lack of) and the inconsistent tenses reveal how damaged she is, even though she considers herself to be a survivor. Personally, I think some of the subtleties of the book might be wasted on a younger, more naïve reader, and they may be somewhat underwhelmed by the conclusion.

Is it any good?

Yes! I wouldn't say it's an enjoyable book, as so much of what happens is pretty bleak, BUT it is certainly a book you will appreciate reading, and it is completely absorbing. I get the feeling it's bit of a marmite book: despite receiving high praise from lit critics, winning the 2004 Guardian Children's Fiction Award and being shortlisted for several others, it has earned a significant amount of negative reviews on Goodreads. This is largely due to the incestuous relationship between Daisy and Edmond. I find this to be quite a limited reflection on a superbly written book that has all the makings of a future classic. I was amused, however, at the quickness of some of these reviewers to suggest that a bit of cousin-lovin' is the norm for us Brits, given that 1) one half of said relationship is a New Yorker and 2) I've heard enough "You know you're a redneck when..." Jokes to know that incest is not just for the British aristocracy!

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Over to you:

• Is Daisy a reliable narrator? Why/why not?
• What's your opinion of Daisy and Edmond's relationship? Does it add anything to the story? Some readers have suggested they would have preferred it if Edmond was just a neighbour - do you agree?
• What does the future hold for Edmond? Will Daisy be a part of it?
• Does the movie compare to the book? (I've not seen it yet)