This is a fascinating and moving novel about a young man who sees the world from a slightly troubled point of view. From the beginning the signs are there that not all is quite as it should be in the mind of Patrick Oxtoby and, despite best efforts to improve his life, his inner turmoils bring about a turn of events that will change his life completely. A totally engrossing book, sad, bittersweet and brilliant.
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 fiancee 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.
A tour de force. Hyland illuminates this man's damaged soul with such a steely, brilliant clarity that your heart breaks for him.' Helen Garner
'M.J. Hyland 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.' Hilary Mantel
Author
About M J Hyland
M.J. Hyland was born in London in 1968 to Irish parents, and spent her early childhood in Dublin. She now lives and works in Melbourne. Her short stories have been published in Australia, the USA and Ireland and she also edited the literary magazine, Nocturnal Submissions, for a number of years.
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