How I Live Now

Meg Rosoff's 'How I Live Now' is a powerful and poignant novel that follows 15-year-old Daisy, an American girl sent to live with her cousins in rural England. Initially resistant, Daisy soon finds herself falling in love and embracing a new family, only for their idyllic summer to be brutally interrupted by a fictional Third World War. The story explores themes of first love, the devastating impact of war on children, resilience, and the enduring bonds of family. It's a raw, emotional journey of survival, loss, and the struggle to rebuild a life forever altered by trauma, making it a compelling read for mature middle-grade and young adult readers.

It would be much easier to tell this story if it were all about a chaste and perfect love between Two Children Against the World at an Extreme Time in History. But let's face it, that would be crap. Daisy is sent from New York to England to spend a summer with cousins she has never met. They are Isaac, Edmond, Osbert and Piper. And two dogs and a goat. She's never met anyone quite like them before - and, as a dreamy English summer progresses, Daisy finds herself caught in a timeless bubble. It seems like the perfect summer. But their lives are about to explode. Falling in love is just the start of it. War breaks out - a war none of them understands, or really cares about, until it lands on their doorstep. The family is separated. The perfect summer is blown apart. Daisy's life is changed forever - and the world is too.