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 a
meandering 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.
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 big
train 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 timeless
and luminous.
-hether How I Live Now takes 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 a
wry tone.
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
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 smallpox,viruela/, 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 Now starts 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
genres to create a beautiful fabric of a book, something new and not 3uite
like anything I:ve read before, though I was reminded a bit of )ctavia
Butler:s Parable of the Sower.
The only reason this book won:t get a straight 0 from me is that a time
transition near the end felt abrupt and choppy, and for a little while there
were too many unanswered 3uestions that "aisy knew and could have
supplied the answers to circling in my head and distracting me. )ne in
particular I still wonder about. -as +iper left completely alone before
Isaac returned.But the fact that it niggles at me shows how involved and I
became in this wonderful tale. I laughed, I cried, I turned page after page,
and was left thinking about how our world has changed since 2eptember
##th, and how we live now. 0-.
1haracters.
Major McEvoy: Laurence
Mrs McEvoy: Jane
Albert McEvoy: son, 4 years old.
Leah: best friend in NYC
in!: !oat blac" and #hite, red collar
avina the iabolical: ste$%&other
a&ian: future aisy's ()(*E+.
Jet ,&ale, !oes #ith - ./ - in ,fe&ale, !oes #ith E - ) to 0ateshead 1ar&/: blac"
and #hite do!s
octor Ja&eson: first !uy #ho a$$ears, loo"in! for &edicines. 2e "no#s #hat's
ha$$enin! bet#een Ed&ond and aisy. ,.i$er too/. A fe# days later, the 3ritish ar&y
arrives.
Elena: aisy's $artner, &arried to aniel,
Joe: another $artner, interested in aisy...
Cor$oral 1rancis ,1ran"ie/: the driver, friend of Major
3a4: a "ind soldier the &et at &il"in! and then in the barn ,after leavin! McEvoy's,
they and Mrs McEvoy are the only fe&ales, so the ar&y acts li"e they #ere 5ueens/