How I Live Now

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How I Live Now is the first novel by Meg Rosoff. The book drew mixed reactions, the winning of the Michael L. Printz Award for Young Adult Literature and receiving generally positive reviews, but also some negative criticism, including Ann Hulbert at Slate magazine.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in a near future England the book tells the story of Daisy, who is 15 at the start of the novel, and is suffering from an eating disorder. Daisy has moved in with her English relatives, because her stepmother's dislike of her. Daisy is a through and through New Yorker and finds the move to the English countryside quite a new experience. Daisy gets along well with her cousins, particularly Edmond who is described as being "not exactly what you'd expect from your average fourteen year old what with the CIGARETTE and hair that looked like he cut it himself with a hatchet in the dead of night". From this initial impression, Daisy's feelings for Edmond deepened and she falls in love with him over the course of the novel.

The book quickly changes tone when an unspecified enemy takes over England, having previously attacked other countries to draw out the English Army and leave England with no means of defence. With the attack occurring while Daisy's Aunt Penn is at a peace conference in Norway, the family has to scramble to survive. They spend several months without adult supervision and turn the farm house into their version of utopia, including having no social taboos, allowing Daisy and Edmond to have underage sex. Changes slowly start to occur in the English society, eventually causing soldiers to take over the farm and separate Daisy and her younger cousin Piper, from Edmond, and his two brothers. The soldiers separate the cousins, sending Daisy and Piper to another part of the country.

Daisy and Piper thus live with an English Sergeant, named Sergeant Mac, and his wife, Mrs. Mac. They have a four-year-old son, and a son off in a boarding school who is presumed dead. Daisy cleverly interrogates Sergeant Mac throughout their days together to find where the rest of her cousins were sent to.

The two girls are sent to work at a farm, where Piper uses their canine companion to herd cows, and Daisy picks apples and plums with other fruit pickers. Then, once again, their life is thrown into turmoil. On the way home from work one day, an ingrate who has a crush on Daisy starts to yell at the terrorists at one of their check points. The boy is shot in the head, but survives; and Sergeant Mac goes to check the injury, which leads to he himself getting shot.

Sergeant Mac's death led to a revolt led by vigilantes in the area. A friend of Mac's informs Daisy and Piper that it is no longer safe to simply live in your own home (or in their case, a complete stranger's.) Daisy and Piper are taken away by a horde of rebellious English soldiers that are left over from scattered platoons kept within the country, while the main regiment of England's army is in off in other countries.

Eventually, the camp is discovered by the terrorists, and the two cousins are forced to flee. A soldier who has a soft spot for Piper gives them provisions and directions home. Thus, the girls start on a long, hard journey. Daisy had, once again, pumped all the soldiers for information, on how to survive on the wilderness, since she was planning on returning home to Edmond anyhow. The journey is hard, and food is scarce; once, Piper even fed them poisonous mushrooms by a mistake.

The girls finally found the river right by their house, and determine all they have to do to get home is follow the route upstream. Unfortunately, even before they set foot on homeland... they see a few familiar faces. Bodies were strewn along a clearing, and Daisy recognizes one of the bodies as Dr. Jaimieson, someone she met before being stolen away via the soldiers. Then, they see their old pet, Ding, ridden by hunger and disease. Daisy kills it with a gun a soldier had given her.

Their food is almost all drawn out, but they arrive safely at their home, or, rather; their barn. Daisy is scared they'll starve. Then, she remembers that Edmond and Osbert(their eldest cousin) had hidden away a supply of food one night when they had slept over in the barn. The girls are set for a good while.

After resting, they travel to the main home (a good two miles away). They wash. They clean. There are no signs of Edmond, Osbert or Isaac. Daisy is disappointed and feels like she can't feel Edmond with her anymore, spiritually, and is terrified at the notion that perhaps he died, which is why he is no longer with her. She starts to visit the barn obsessively at least twice a day.

One day, the phone rings when she is inspecting the house yet again. It's her father. He takes her home immediately through 'international connections', leaving Piper within someone else's care.

Years pass. Daisy tells that, somehow, time just passed, as she worked, read and, eventually got over her eating disorder. Piper sends Daisy a letter. Daisy's father sends her back to England, where the cousins are all united. Isaac has opened up a little more. Piper is now a woman and is in love with a man named Jonathon; who wishes to be a doctor, like Piper, and they are to be wed.

Daisy is shocked when she finds Edmond. He is covered with self-inflicted scars. He is angry and distant from Daisy, not even saying a simple word to her at first. Daisy, at first, is afraid to ask what happened to Edmond. When she finally gains the courage, Isaac goes into a tale of what happened to the village they were stationed at. Isaac wanted to run, because the villagers would not, being too attached to their homes. Isaac and Edmond could both feel something very, very bad was about to happen; but the villagers simply would not listen to the two young men. Edmond refused to leave, wanting to help the souls left behind. Isaac left Edmond, thinking perhaps he'd follow if he realized his brother was gone. Edmond didn't follow Isaac. Instead, he watched as the whole village was slaughtered by enemy soldiers. The soldiers imprisoned him. Edmond was so quiet, and practically dead, that they did not harm him. One day, Edmond, still quiet as a ghost, got up and simply walked away. The soldiers didn't notice. Daisy, shocked by all of the strings she must pull together, is hit with another blow: Edmond arrived at the house a mere TWO days after she was taken away to America. The only way Edmond had stopped himself from killing himself was by tending to a garden. It's wild and vicious and it is here that Daisy finds a way to connect to Edmond, planting and tending plants with him. Finally, she's brave enough to turn to Edmond and tell him how much she loves him. Edmond responds with, 'Then why did you leave me?'. As Daisy spills her story, Edmond stays deadly silent. Finally, when she finishes, he takes her hands and holds them, and says "OK." Daisy responds with 'it's a start'.

This is the end. Daisy leaves the book off, with; "After all of this time, I know exactly where I belong. Here. With Edmond. And that's how I live now."