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 accomplished writer
Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category
Great review for This is How in The Times
Sunday, April 11th, 2010The Boston globe includes This is How in its ’simply the best’ fiction list of 2009
Sunday, December 6th, 2009This 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 at [...]
The Times names This is How as one of the best books of 2009
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009The 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, 2009This 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 tiny, [...]
Financial Times chooses This Is How amongst its books of the year
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009More 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 see the full [...]
Hilary Mantel lists ‘This is How’ as one of her books of the year!
Saturday, November 28th, 2009This 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. How does [...]
This is How listed in top books of the year
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009More 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. In [...]
This is How reviewed on ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club
Thursday, November 5th, 2009This 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), [...]
This is How makes NY Times Editors’ Choice list
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009Great news – This is How is one of the books on this week’s Editors’ Choice list at the New York Times. This follows on from the great review This is How got last week in the same newspaper.
“She makes it look so simple, with her words of one syllable, with a style almost entirely [...]
The Globe and Mail review This is How
Monday, August 10th, 2009Novelist Kate Pullinger reviews This is How in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
The full review is here.
Here’s an extract:
This is How, by Booker Prize-nominated British writer M. J. Hyland, is a novel of quiet and unexpected power. It takes a tired set of genre clichés and wakes us up by breathing new life into an [...]