This Is How (Paperback)
M.J. Hyland (author)Published: 01/04/2010
All actions have consequences. This is how life goes.
Patrick is a loner, an intelligent but disturbed young man struggling to find his place in the world. He ventures out on his own, and, as he begins to find happiness, he commits an act of violence that sends his life horribly and irreversibly out of control. But should a person's life be judged by a single bad act?
This is How is a compelling and macabre journey into the dark side of human existence and a powerful meditation on the nature of guilt and redemption.
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 9781847673831
Number of pages: 400
Weight: 267 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 24 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
A novel of extraordinary power...Hyland tells her story in a supercharged present tense, tremblingly aware of physical detail. ... it is a profound achievement * * Guardian * *
M.J. Hyland has a ferocious imagination, and an eerie way of squeezing the distance between author, character and reader, so that the atmosphere of the book soaks and penetrates the reader's mind. When you've been reading Hyland, other writers seem to lack integrity; they seem wedded to weak confabulations, whereas she aims straight for the truth and the heart. * * Hilary Mantel * *
A tour de force. Hyland illuminates this man's damaged soul with such a steely, brilliant clarity that your heart breaks for him. -- HELEN GARNER
Three or four days [after finishing the novel], Hyland's white-hot prose was still smouldering in my head and I found myself intensely, almost helplessly, moved by Oxtoby and his tragedy * * Financial Times * *
This is an expertly paced, gripping novel that doesn't falter and never compromises its emotional truth * * The Times * *
Brilliant. * * Irish Times * *
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