When his fiancée breaks off their engagement, Patrick Oxtoby leaves home and moves to a boarding house in a seaside town. But in spite of his hopes and determination to build a better life, nothing goes to plan and Patrick is soon driven to take a desperate and chilling course of action.

This is How is a mesmerising and meticulously drawn portrait of a man whose unease in the world leads to his tragic undoing. Written with breathtaking wisdom and an astute insight into the human mind, M.J. Hyland's new book is a masterpiece that inspires horror and sympathy in equal measure.

John Egan is a misfit -"a twelve year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant" - who diligently keeps a "log of lies." John's been able to detect lies for as long as he can remember. It's a source of power but also great consternation for a boy so young. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records, a keenly inquisitive mind, and a kind of faith, John remains hopeful despite the unfavorable cards life deals him.

This is one year in a boy's life. On the cusp of adolescence, from his changing voice and body to his parents' difficult travails and the near collapse of his sanity, John is like a tuning fork sensitive to the vibrations within himself and the trouble that this creates for him and his family.

Louise Connor, a precocious and unhappy sixteen year-old is offered a place as an exchange student in the USA, something that she hopes will take her far away from her bleak life of poverty in Sydney, Australia. But not long after she moves in with her host-family, the Hardings - who live in a pre-fabricated mansion in a nameless Chicago suburb - Lou's acute need for acceptance and love runs up against the Harding's suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection.

How The Light Gets In is a cleverly observed, complex portrait of a girl on the verge of adulthood whose world - like Holden Caulfield's before her - is full of mixed-messages.