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Posts Tagged ‘This is How reviews’

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 tiny, [...]

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 see the full [...]

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. How does [...]

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. In [...]

This is How is one of the Top 50 Winter Reads

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Great news - This is How is one of the novels in the English Independent’s Top 50 Winter reads list.
“‘MJ Hyland’s sparse style and astute observations of human nature make this a simple yet beautiful novel that draws the reader into [the protagonist] Patrick’s awkward soul,’ says Michael.”
You can read the list here>

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), [...]

This is How makes NY Times Editors’ Choice list

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Great 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 [...]

‘thrilling, moving and compassionate’ - The New York Times reviews This is How

Monday, August 17th, 2009

There’s a wonderful review of This is How in the New York Times, written by novelist, poet, and literary critic Erica Wagner
The full review can be read here
Here’s an extract:
She makes it look so simple, with her words of one syllable, with a style almost entirely devoid of affect; but there is nothing simplistic about [...]

This is How reviewed by the Daily Mail

Friday, July 24th, 2009

The Daily Mail has a short positive review of This is How. You can read it online here
Extract:
The description of life on the inside is as remarkable for its authenticity as it is for the development of Patrick’s character. Alongside the relentless hopelessness, the struggle for existence itself and the constant undertow of mindless violence, [...]

Geordie Williamson reviews This is How

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Leading Australian book critic Geordie Williamson has reviewed This is How in the newspaper The Australian. The full review is here.
Here’s an extract:
Hyland’s writing, which has only increased in strangeness with each new book, emerges from a shifting of co-ordinates between cold-eyed clinician and artist’s empathetic heart. Her characters are constructed from the tension between [...]