How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. Narrated by Kim Mai Guest.
Teen Zone CD Books – Main Level - Rosoff
Fifteen-year-old Daisy is mostly relieved when she leaves her pregnant stepmother in New York to stay with her aunt and cousins in the English countryside. She loves the old farm house and being part of a large family. Then, her aunt leaves the country for a few days. England is attacked and the borders are sealed, leaving four teens and nine-year-old Piper alone in the big house. Somehow, Daisy falls in love with her younger cousin Edmond (fourteen), who seems to be able to read her thoughts. In spite of the ickiness factor, but aided by the war, they have a tender but inexplicit romance. Then the children get discovered and separated, the oldest brother joining the military, Daisy and little Piper to one house, Edmond and his other brother to another, hours apart. As the war gets worse, Daisy knows that it’s up to her to reunite the only family she’s ever felt she belongs in. And as food gets scarcer, the eating disorder she brought over from New York starts to look very different. At the height of the book, Daisy and Piper are traveling secretly across England by foot, foraging for food, and trying to find Edmond, whom Daisy can still hear faintly in her mind. What started off looking like a loveable family drama turns quickly into a survival adventure, with explicit and gory violence. The narrator of the audio book sounds utterly believable as a young teen. For older teens through adults, this is a book you won’t want to turn off.