This is How
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M. J. Hyland is the
multi-award-winning and Man Booker–shortlisted author of Carry Me Down.
Her third novel, This Is How, is a psychologically probing and deeply
moving account of a perpetual outsider longing to find his niche. When Patrick
Oxtoby’s fiancée breaks off their engagement, he leaves home and moves to a
remote seaside village. In spite of his hopes for a new and better life, Patrick
struggles to fit in and make the right impression. Certain that his new friends
are conspiring against him, and with his already fragile personality further
fractured, he takes a course of action that permanently alters his life.
This Is How is a
mesmerizing and meticulously drawn portrait of a man whose unease in the world
leads to his tragic undoing. With breathtaking wisdom and astute insight into
the human mind, Hyland’s latest is a masterpiece that arouses horror and
sympathy in equal measure.
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Author Extras
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Critical Praise for
This is How
“This is an expertly paced, gripping novel that doesn’t falter and never compromises its emotional truth.” — The Times
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“This is fiction writing of the highest order.”
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J.M. Coetzee on Carry Me Down
“Uncompromising, unputdownable and done with expert lightness.”
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Ali Smith on Carry Me Down
"This Is How confirms her as a true original. She 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."
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Hilary Mantel
"A tour de force. Hyland illuminates this damaged soul with such a steely,
brilliant clarity that your heart breaks for him."
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Helen Garner
“I don’t think I’ve ever read such an intensely and wholeheartedly masculine voice from the pen of a woman...Three or four days later, however, Hyland’s while-hot prose was still smouldering in my head and I found myself intensely, almost helplessly, moved by Oxtoby and his tragedy. Some novels plan a long game, It’s all credit to Hyland that I’m still thinking about this one, still excited and perturbed by it, still trying to work out what exactly it is that I just read.”
— Julie Myerson, Financial Times
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"Hyland’s spare, haunting prose creates a Pintersque world, where menace is present and communication absent as the characters yearn for redemption while facing utter despair."
— Books Quarterly
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"This novel will stay in my head for much longer than I’d like. In fact, possibly for ever...Hyland gets under your skin by writing an unfussy, stylishly unstylish prose...Wonderful."
— A. N. Wilson, Reader’s Digest
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“In beautifully detailed and understated prose, this meditation
on the nature of falsehood uncovers precious truths at every turn.”
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The Times (London) on Carry Me Down
“A moving and compassionate portrait of a human being who is fully himself and yet stands for all of us, for what we fear, or fear to hope and that is the best that most writers can ever hope to achieve.”
— Erica Wagner, New York Times Book Review
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“Life like, fiction would be dull if you know all the answers, and MJ Hyland is a master at keeping the cards close to her chest. Hyland’s knack for description locks you in there with Oxtoby, and through every sleepless night and inedible meal you join his quest to find the inner peace that comes with human affection.”
— Amy Adams, TNT Magazine Culture Book of the Week
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