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Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

A wonderful review in the Daily Telegraph of the Walker Edition of How the Light Gets

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

In the Daily Telegraph, July 2011, another wonderful review of the Walker Edition of M.J Hyland’s first novel, How the Light Gets In. This edition is a special imprint for the teenage fiction market. Although not written for a teenage readership, like J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, How the Light Gets In has, [...]

Great review of How the Light Gets In, Walker Edition, reviewed in The Guardian.

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

On July 24th, MJ Hyland’s first novel, How the Light Gets In, published in a new edition by Walker Books, was reviewed in The Guardian. Read the review here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/21/teen-fiction-roundup-geraldine-brennan?INTCMP=SRCH  

Great review for This is How in The Times

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

There’s a great review from The Times for the paperback edition of This is How The full review can be read here. Here’s an extract: [...] Patrick is utterly believable and consistent. This is a supreme act of literary ventriloquism and you never once see Hyland’s lips move. [...] Further garlands surely await a truly [...]

The Boston globe includes This is How in its ‘simply the best’ fiction list of 2009

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

This is How pops up on another ‘best of 2009′ list.  Anna Mundow, writing in the Boston Globe describes the novel as ‘fearlessly disturbing’: Hyland’s pared-down descriptions of Patrick’s life – as it once was and as he now endures it – convey excruciating tension and pain. Yet the claustrophobic world that she creates has [...]

The Times names This is How as one of the best books of 2009

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

The Times names This is How as one of the best books of 2009 in its Christmas Books Fiction Review. MJ Hyland appears alongside William Trevor and  Margaret Atwood, in the Times list, which describes This is How as ‘ a pin-sharp examination of a young man’s troubled soul’ The full list is here

This is How makes it into the Irish Times books of 2009 list

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

This is How makes yet another appearance in a major newspaper’s ‘books of the year’ list. This time it’s the Irish Times, where poet Vona Groarke writes: “Patrick Oxtoby is a damaged, brittle, ordinary man: his actions and their consequences are presented in deceptively transparent prose that balances honesty with integrity, and brutality with a [...]

Financial Times chooses This Is How amongst its books of the year

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

More good news – Another major newspaper has picked This is How in its end of year roundup. The Financial Times has chosen This is How as one of its best novels of 2009. Financial Times fiction reviewer Angel Gurría-Quintana writes: “Hyland’s exquisitely crafted prose makes readers care for this emotionally stunted protagonist.” You can [...]

Hilary Mantel lists ‘This is How’ as one of her books of the year!

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

This year’s Man Booker prize winner, Hilary Mantel, has chosen This is How as one of her books of the year! In a piece published in the Guardian, Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall, wrote: Mysteriously underrated among this year’s novels was MJ Hyland’s This Is How; but then, Hyland’s talent in itself is mysterious. [...]

This is How listed in top books of the year

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

More great news – This is How is included in The London Evening Standard’s list of the best books of 2009. Colin Burrows writes of the novel: “MJ Hyland’s This is How should have been on the Booker shortlist. She writes about people whose indistinct and confused desires lead them to be judged and incarcerated. [...]

This is How reviewed on ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

This is How is one of the books up for discussion on the November edition of  Australian TV ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club, hosted by journalist and publisher Jennifer Byrne. Guests discussing the book are David Marr, Di Morrissey, alongside regular panelists Jason Steger (the books editor of The Age and The Sunday Age), and [...]