For Seller

By: Jacqui O’Brien

Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, Meg Rosoff’s "˜How I Live Now’ is set in a recognisably present-day England. The narrator is Daisy, an anorexic American sent to stay with her aunt and cousins in the UK one summer. While her aunt is away an unnamed aggressor invades Britain and she and her cousins are left to fend for themselves.

It would have been too easy to simply put an American into the UK and watch the sparks fly and one of the book’s great strengths is that Rosoff resisted the urge to do so. Instead she lets Daisy’s different perspective allow her to observe the British and their Dunkirk Spirit, rather than her actions and tantrums creating the plot.

The book has become what is know as a crossover hit, originally intended for teenage readers but popular with adults. The book is not a comfortable read by any means, with the violence of war, separation, bereavement and mental breakdown fundamental to the plot. Yet it is not a violent book, with the horror implied but rarely described explicitly.

Daisy and her cousin’s problems really begin when their farm is commandeered by the British Army and the authorities discover that they are living without an adult. The family is split up and, with echoes of WW2 evacuees, are sent to live with strangers. Volunteering to join the war effort helps them to cope with the boredom, leads to more danger but finally gives them a chance of escape.

The writing style contains little in the way of punctuation, a sort of cross between a teenage diary and a verbatim transcript of Daisy’s internal chatter. It is this that gives realism to a situation that thankfully few of us have ever experienced. "˜How I Live Now’ is a remarkable novel, as gripping and thought provoking for an adult reader as the teenage readership it is aimed at.

Jacqui O’Brien is the editor of online parenting magazine eParenting.co.uk Visit eParenting at http://www.eparenting.co.uk/