Once Upon a Saturday

What captures me when I see something on the shelf, what really gets its claws into me when I decide to read a particular book, is how it begins. And once I've finished a book, I often go back and re-read the beginning, which adds another layer to my experience of the story.
So this week, I will showcase for you the opening of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff:

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 a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, 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, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can't remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn't count in my book, which this is.

Mostly everything changed because of Edmond.

I'm currently reading her very newest book, The Bride's Farewell, and I was reminded how much I love HILN. If you haven't read this book I sincerely encourage you to pick it up.
New Yorker Daisy exiles herself to stay with estranged cousins (actually she's never met them) in the English countryside. Four precocious cousins and their mother live in a sprawling, charming old house, embedded in the lush natural landscape. Her Aunt Penn is busy in the city with some hazy government work and the 5 of them make due at home without any adult supervision, filling their days with farmwork, picnics and reading. Idyllic, until the war begins.
I was blown away by this story. I love that Rosoff had decided to set the events during an imagined war, one that feeds on confusion and seems to be a historical pastiche of conflicts during the last century. Rosoff is a master storyteller, an impeccable writer, and dammit, she made me weep. HILN proves the resonance of literature and its importance for the human heart.

And I want to give away an extra copy! Inside it has a signed bookplate by Meg Rosoff that she sent me. Just leave your name, comments, and your e-mail address and I'll chose a name randomly on August 22nd.

Mandy

Previously:

Interview with Meg Rosoff