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1/5

Though billed as a book for older children, the novel is full of shocking

events - underage sex, with a whiff of incest, appalling violence. But

younger readers, with their relative lack of experience and greater

insouciance, may well be less troubled by these things than the many

adults who will also read the book.

How I ive !ow is the first-person story of "aisy, a smart, self-absorbed

#$-year-old who arrives from !ew %ork&s to stay with her 'nglish cousins

and aunt. Her new family is carefree and en(oys an eccentric idyll of an

existence in an 'nglish country house, mystically in touch with nature

and, indeed, with "aisy.

)ne of the twins, Isaac, talks to animals* +iper, the girl, knows how to get

honey from bees and watercress from a running river. &hat about ameandering river& "aisy wonders to herself. &This is one of the things I

most dislike about nature, namely that the rules are not at all precise.&/

0nd 'dmond, who has &eyes the colour of unsettled weather&, is so much

her soulmate that he can get inside her head, even when they are far

apart.

&It would be much easier to tell this story,& "aisy explains, &if it were all

about a chaste and perfect love between Two 1hildren 0gainst The orld

0t 0n 'xtreme Time in History, but let&s face it, that would be a load of

crap.&

0s "aisy and 'dmond fall in not-so-chaste love, her 0unt +enn, who

appears to be some sort of international peacekeeper, is summoned to

)slo in an attempt to avert the threatened war. The action takes place in

a kind of parallel present or near future./ The unworldly, though not

entirely innocent, 'nglish children and their sophisticate cousin are left to

fend for themselves as the fighting breaks out. Initially, they experience

the war chiefly as a glorious absence of adults.

It is "aisy&s voice - spiky, defiant and vulnerable - that makes this novel* it

also ensures that it is so compelling and delightful. 0lthough "aisy can be

an unreliable narrator, especially when it comes to things she&s not much

interested in, such as the details of war, she is also utterly trustworthy.

2he is a character we are permitted to see from many different angles -

as hurt, but also cool, ironic, downbeat and superior* as an infuriating

anorexic* and as resourceful, self-deprecating, funny and determined.

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2/5

The latter 3ualities turn out to be rather necessary, because "aisy and

her youngest cousin, +iper, are evacuated, moved on and eventually

have to try to trek back home cross-country to find the rest of their family

without being killed by one side or the other.

0s "aisy notes4 &In order to survive +iper and I needed to have a plan,

and I was the one who was going to have to make it because +iper&s (ob

was to be a 5ystical 1reature and mine was to get things done here on

earth, which was (ust how the cards were dealt and there was no point

thinking of it any other way.&

'ven though the details remain vague, the war is fiercely imagined, its

interpretation through the offhand eyes of a child making it oddly more

horrific. The first bomb goes off, "aisy informs us, &in the middle of a bigtrain station the day after 0unt + went to )slo and something like 6,777 or

67,777 people got killed&.

The violence remains largely in the background until near the end, but

touches the children in unexpected ways4 emails bounce back,

telephones stop ringing, cows develop mastitis because there&s no

electricity to milk them. &hat impressed me,& "aisy says vaguely, &is how

simple it seemed to be to throw a whole country into chaos by dumping a

bunch of poison into some of the water supplies and making sure no one

could get electricity or phone connections and setting off a few big bombs

here and there in tunnels and government buildings and airports.&

How I ive !ow is a book written out of an apprehension of how terrible

the world is, but also out of its potential for magic. 8osoff has great

imaginative reach* her voice is so finely tuned that I instinctively trusted

her, from the opening page right up to the wonderfully e3uivocal ending.

ith its lack of punctuation, its muddled tenses, its bree9y tone

concealing an absolutely stricken state, this is a powerful novel4 timelessand luminous.

hether How I Live Nowtakes place in an alternate present or in the very

near future isn:t clear, but it doesn:t matter, because the world it is set in

feels so familiar that when things start to go wrong they:re disturbingly

convincing. The book begins when "aisy, its fifteen year old 0merican

narrator, arrives in 'ngland. "aisy tells her story in long sentences and awry tone.

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3/5

0nyway, I&m looking and looking and everyone&s leaving and there&s no

signal on my phone and I&m thinking )h great, I&m going to be abandoned

at the airport so that&s two countries they don&t want me in, when I notice

everyone&s gone except this kid who comes up to me and says %ou must

be "aisy. 0nd when I look relieved he does too and says I&m 'dmond.

"aisy:s voice takes a little taking used to, but it wasn:t long before I was

caught up in her story. "aisy and her ;wicked stepmother< "avina don:t

get along, and now that "avina is pregnant, "aisy:s father has sent "aisy

to live with her maternal aunt and her cousins. The cousins are nine year

old +iper, fourteen year old twins 'dmond and Isaac, and sixteen year old

)sbert the only one who is not home-schooled/.

"aisy:s relationship with her dad is clearly complicated she starves

herself partly because it forces her father to spend his money on

psychiatrists/, but the cousins and her aunt +enn welcome "aisy so

warmly that she feels wanted for the first time in her life. The family lives

in big country house with dogs and chickens and ducks and goats, some

of which are pets and some of which are there for decoration. To "aisy,

who has lived in 5anhattan all her life, the place seems exotic and

strange, but in a good way.

There:s a wasp in the ointment, however, and that is the fact that

everyone expects war to break out soon. "aisy and the other kids see

this mostly as a lark, but "aisy:s aunt +enn is a diplomat, and takes it

very seriously. 2hortly after "aisy:s arrival, +enn leaves for )slo, where a

last ditch attempt at diplomacy is to be made. But while she is away,

ondon is attacked, 'ngland:s borders are closed, and the kids are left on

their own.

In the beginning they are glad to be free of parental supervision. Being on

their own is exciting, and even the war is thrilling since it doesn:t yet touch

them. )sbert dreams of spying on the enemy, a country whose identity is

at first unknown and later unnamed.

"aisy and 'dmond have another reason to be happy with the present

state of affairs. It:s very nearly love at first sight for them, despite the fact

that they are first cousins. 0t first they try to resist their feelings, but

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4/5

eventually they give in to them. They are, as "aisy puts it, starved for

each other, and the absence of adults makes it possible for them to try to

satisfy their endless hunger.

But this idyll can:t and doesn:t last long. =irst the countryside is

3uarantined due to a rumored outbreak of smallpoxviruela/, and then

British soldiers commandeer the house, recruit )sbert, and send "aisy

and +iper west 'dmond asks +iper to take >et/, to live with a military

family. Both girls are miserable at being separated from their family, and

"aisy promises +iper that she will reunite them with 'dmond and Isaac.

But she will have to ensure her own survival and +iper:s first.

)ne night, when coming back to 5c'voy:s, they are stopped in a

checkpoint. The situation gets awkward and >oe:s killed, 5a(or 5c'voy

got off the truck and was shot too. The driver, a friend of 5a(or 5c'voy

who:s called 1orporal =rancis =rankie/ wants to retrieve the bodies, but

the warning shots make him stay at 5c'voy:s.

Then, they are taken to a barn, where they met Ba9. He is very friendly

and helps them. +iper and "aisy leave and, as Ba9 has adviced them to

do, they used the compass she had taken from 5':s to follow the way

back home. H?T. They finally arrive at the river they used to go when

they all were together. They follow this river and arrive at the farm, where

"aisy kills "ing, which was dying. They stay in the barn and then found

>et. 0 few days later, the phone rang.

How I Live Nowstarts out intriguing and gets better from there. 2ome

readers might be s3uicked out by the fact that 'dmond and "aisy are

cousins. I was a little bit discomfited at first, but their love scenes took

place behind closed doors, and as the book progressed I saw that their

love was one of the things that kept them whole in an unstable world with

(agged edges, and I came to appreciate how much it meant to them, and

to want them to be reunited.

0lthough the book gets 3uite dark, "aisy:s wry commentary got me

laughing out loud in the midst of moments that might otherwise have been

grim. hat unfolds during the war is at times surreal, but "aisy is so

grounded in reality that the book remains believable even when elements

of the fantastical are introduced. %ou weave together threads from several

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5/5