How I Live Now
Daisy is sent from the United States to stay with relatives on a farm in England, and she slowly settles into life with her cousins just as the wider world begins to collapse into war. In the sealed-off chaos that follows, the novel tests the strength of family bonds and the will to survive.
Work Information
As war tears through ordinary life, a girl searches for where she belongs in a distant family home.
Daisy is sent from the United States to stay with relatives on a farm in England, and she slowly settles into life with her cousins just as the wider world begins to collapse into war. In the sealed-off chaos that follows, the novel tests the strength of family bonds and the will to survive. The story follows young people caught between personal choice and pressure from the world around them, with quiet but sustained tension.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Puffin Books
- Published
- 2004-08-05
- Pages
- 192 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.8 x 2.4 x 21.8 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780141380759
- ISBN-10
- 0141380756
- Price
- 8395 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Teen & Young Adult
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.
Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, USA. A brand new author to Puffin, Meg only started writing a year ago. She has worked in publishing, public relations and most recently advertising but thinks the best job in the world would be head gardener for Regents Park. Meg lives in Highbury, North London.
Reviews
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衝撃を与える2004年のYA問題作
現代から近未来の英国が舞台。十分な愛情を受けず拒食症になっていたニューヨーカーの15歳の少女Daisyは、娘に手を焼く父親から英国に住む亡くなった母親の姉の元に送られる。戦争の危機にさらされている英国の空港に到着してみると、迎えに来たのは14歳の従弟Edmondだった。免許のない彼の運転で夏の別荘であるファームハウスに到着した直後、叔母は戦争を回避するための会合に出席するためにノルウェイに旅立ってしまう。 叔母の留守の間Daisyは他人の心を読む能力があるEdmondと恋におちる。Daisyがそれぞれ個性がある従弟たちとおとぎ話のような田舎の農場の暮らしを楽しみ始めたときに、ついに戦争が勃発する。最初は噂にすぎなかった戦争は次第に子供たちの生活を侵食し、侵略者によってばらばらに引き裂かれたDaisyとEdmondはサバイバルのためにそれぞれの苦闘をすることになる。 心理的にダメージを受けている少女Daisyのシニカルで否定的な態度が、サバイバルのための苦闘と喪失というつらい体験で成熟してゆき、思春期のホルモンにコントロールされているような無責任なティーンの恋が本物の愛情に変わるところがこの本の読書体験に満足感を与えてくれる。 従弟間の性的関係というタブーを扱ったこともあり、出版当時非常に話題になった。また、すっきりと完成された作品ではなくそれを批判する声もあるが、完成されていない雑なところがかえってDaisyのストーリーに本物らしさを与えている。 Michael L. Printz賞受賞作
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時間を忘れてよみふけってしまいました
話の展開が突然なので最初は理解しづらい部分もあるが、それがまたこの小説の魅力である。特にpart1とpart2のつながりは唐突で細かい記述がないので読み進めないとわからない。 展開がどうなるのか、まるで推理小説のように気になって仕方がなかったので一気に読んでしまった。状況展開と主人公の心の動きの描写が注目すべき点である。 本書はPart1(Chapter1-29)とPart2(Chapter1-6)から構成されており、メインはPart1でPart2は後半の数ページでここでタイトルのHow I Live Nowの意味がわかるようになっている。 Part1では幼少期に母親をなくしたNYの15才の少女が休暇のあいだ、父親によって見ず知らずのLondonのおば、いとこの元へ送られるところから物語が始まるが、まもなく世界戦争の勃発によりロンドンに滞在し続けることになる。しかしおばは出張先から戻らず、いとこたちと戦争中の日常をsurviveすることになり、主人公いとこの一人と恋に落ちるが、戦争の中離れて生活することになり心の葛藤がはじめる・・・・・ Part2ではPart1を乗り越えていったんNYに戻ってからの話になるが、主人公がロンドンでの体験をもとにいかに人生の決断をしていくかに感動させられた。
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The book is super interesting at all times, from beginning to end, the author knows how to narrate everything that is happening in each moment. What live the main protagonist is incredible. Truly a Third World War would affect the world. This book has become one of my favorites and I really recommend it a lot. It deserves five stars.
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Este era el libro de lectura obligada para el verano en inglés de 2º de ESO. Le gustó mucho!
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This is a great book. The voice is fantastic, the character of Daisy charismatic, complex, humorous and engaging. Daisy is self- named, rejecting her father's name for her. Opening paragraph, like a prologue but very brief: My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or dead person, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go. But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins, everything changed. Part of that was because of the war... War is a strong word, the scene is immediately set: the drama of a new location, new family, and a war thrown into the mix as well. The cousins are the key to this new stage in Daisy's life; weird, independent, open hearted and minded, empathetic to the point of telepathic, animal whisperers, half magical. Daisy forms an entirely inappropriate, passionate and profound relationship with her younger too closely related cousin Edmond. His twin, Isaac, is mostly silent. Their younger sister Piper is as innocent and thoughtful and loving and guileless as Edmond himself. Osbert, the oldest, goes to regular school and is the most nearly normal. Then their idyllic summer is interrupted by the advent of war. Mostly I love Daisy’s dry, penetrating, honest humour, but also the way in which her relationship with nine year old Piper, and being thrust into a position of responsibility, forces her to move out from herself, grow up and beyond her previous egotistical concerns. Plus the end is deeply moving: Edmond’s openness to others, his deep empathy and concern, leave him terribly wounded, emotionally, by the things he has seen. And Daisy’s job, at last, is simply to be there, and heal. If there has to be a caveat – and there always is – it is very minor. The war, in the care with which no enemy powers are named, and no one ever knows what exactly is going on, is a bit too wooly to be entirely convincing. This is obviously an authorial ruse to create a situation, while not pointing the finger at anyone in particular. It is well managed enough, though, not to alienate the reader too much. Charming, witty, big hearted, thought provoking: a novel to stay with you, and I predict a classic. Five stars. Also award winning - others agree!!! Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2004 Branford Boase Award 2005 Michael L. Printz Award 2005 Der Luchs des Jahres Book Prize 2005 Julia Ward Howe Prize (Boston Authors Club) 2005 And see there is a movie due out soon too - in post-production according to IMDB. Wonder how will transfer to moviedom? Tricky as major strength of novel is in its distinctive voice.
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Although the style of the writing takes some getting used to, I was immediately captivated by the story the author tells. I read the book in only one evening, becoming engrossed in a story that starts out so innocently and then wreaks havoc with all imagination. All the praise that is printed in the version of my book is absolutely right. A must read!
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would be a perfect story if not for the familial relations that disturb me but also i guess daisy had some problems