How to Survive Everything: A Novel

by Ewan Morrison Narrated by Caitlin Kelly

Overview

Longlisted for the 2021 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year

Shortlisted for the 2021 Bookmark Book of the Year Prize

""One of the most provocative, intelligent and original novelists working in Britain today"" (Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting) makes his American debut with this darkly comic and electrifyingly twisty thriller with echoes of Emily St. John Mandel, Lionel Shriver, and Richard Powers, in which a teenage girl and her brother are abducted by their survivalist father who believes the apocalypse has begun.

""An absolutely brilliant read.""-Lucy Mangan, journalist and author of Are We Having Fun Yet?

""Hilarious, foreboding with all of the brilliance and brutality of life in between. Haley is the hero of our times-bold, bewitching, and superbly drawn. Her voice rang in my ears long after I reluctantly turned the last page.""-Diane Cook, author of the Booker Prize nominated novel The New Wilderness

My name is Haley Cooper Crowe and I am in lockdown in a remote location I can't tell you about.

Children of divorce, Haley and Ben live with their mother. But their dad believes there's a new, much deadlier pandemic coming and is determined to keep them alive. He wants to take them to his prepper hideaway where they will be safe from other people. NOW. But there's no way their mother will go along with his plan. Saving them requires extreme measures.

Kidnapped by their father and confined to his compound far off the grid, Haley and Ben have no contact with the outside world. How can they save their mother? Will they make it out alive? Is the threat real-or is this all just a dark fantasy brought on by their conspiracy obsessed father's warped imagination?

Propulsive and chilling in its realism, How to Survive Everything is the story of a world imploding; a teenage girl's record for negotiating the collapse of everything she knows-including her family and sanity.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

In the future, with threats of another deadly pandemic on the horizon, Haley and her younger brother, Ben, are kidnapped by their noncustodial father, Ed, and taken to a prepper hideaway in the UK. Caitlin Kelly perfectly portrays 15-year-old Haley, who tells this dystopian story in the first person. Kelly's pacing and inflection make Haley's voice entirely believable as she is frustrated by her parents and unsure of whom and what to believe. Listeners struggle along with Haley—and a wild cast of supporting characters—to determine what is really going on in the outside world. This is a story of extremes in actions, beliefs, and attitudes and may make listeners uncomfortable despite the fascinating questions it raises about society, family, and the future. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 12/05/2022

Haley Cooper Crowe, the narrator of this outstanding if often disturbing thriller set during a near-future pandemic from Scottish author Morrison (Nina X), and her brother, Ben, who have been living with their mother after their parents’ divorce, are kidnapped by their “prepper” father, because he believes a second pandemic is coming. Now in a remote compound, Haley has lived off the grid for so long that she doesn’t know her age, but she does know that she was “fifteen years, seven months, two weeks, and one day old” when she was abducted. Can Haley and Ben somehow escape from the compound and reunite with their mother? Haley’s voice and comic flair never falter as she successfully transforms her father’s rules into her own manual for survival. Morrison succeeds in making readers empathize with Haley even as she admires the “genius” underlying her father’s criminal behavior. This elegantly conceived and written novel provides an unforgettable interrogation of whether coming to terms with one’s own family always involves a degree of insanity. Morrison is a writer to watch. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

"Hilarious, foreboding with all of the brilliance and brutality of life in between. Haley is the hero of our times—bold, bewitching, and superbly drawn. Her voice rang in my ears long after I reluctantly turned the last page." — Diane Cook, author of the Booker Prize nominated novel The New Wilderness

"One of the most provocative, intelligent and original novelists working in Britain today." — Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

"What an extraordinarily wonderful and daring novel this is. It questions everything we are supposed to hold dear - truth, family, love, the purpose of life itself. Through the shallow thinking and petty bickerings of his hopeless, ever hopeful, messed-up, insanely normal characters, Ewan Morrison tells a story with profound implications for us all. Claustrophobic, horrifying, frightening, intriguing, wise and daft, it’s a book full of sadness and humor and, even at its craziest, of great beauty.”
— James Robertson, winner of the Sir Walter Scott Prize

"A terrific thriller . . . puts a very contemporary dysfunctional family at the heart of a very contemporary dystopian reality." — Lynda Obst, producer of Interstellar

“Stylishly crisp, thematically germane—and great fun.”  — Lionel Shriver, journalist and author of We Need to Talk about Kevin and Should We Stay or Should We Go

"I wasn’t sure there could be a great pandemic novel. Here it is." — Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels

"This is an absolutely brilliant read." — Lucy Mangan, journalist and author of Are We Having Fun Yet?

"What an extraordinarily wonderful and daring novel this is. It questions everything we are supposed to hold dear - truth, family, love, the purpose of life itself. Through the shallow thinking and petty bickerings of his hopeless, ever hopeful, messed-up, insanely normal characters, Ewan Morrison tells a story with profound implications for us all. Claustrophobic, horrifying, frightening, intriguing, wise and daft, it’s a book full of sadness and humor and, even at its craziest, of great beauty." — James Robertson, author of News of the Dead

“How To Survive Everything is a gritty and (tragically) cool novel. The collision of a broken family and a global pandemic, it reads as a survival guide and feels like (is) a warning.” — David Shields, internationally bestselling author

"I loved everything about [this book] . . . the voice, the world, the humour, the darkness . . . Read now, thank me later..." — Antonia Senior, journalist and author of The Tyrant's Shadow

"A brilliant, intriguing, harrowing, illuminating story." — Tim Minchin, comedian, actor, composer, and songwriter

"Urgent and exciting, harnessing our current global anxiety with a beautifully observed family drama." — Atom Egoyan, director and filmmaker

“A complex, thought-provoking drama about fake news, real fears and frayed family ties . . . both exciting and terrifying . . . a bold and compelling book by a writer whose creative risks continue to pay huge dividends.” — The Herald (Scotland)

"Morrison has concocted an adventurous plot, full of desperate escape attempts and violent confrontations." — New York Times Book Review

“[An] outstanding if often disturbing thriller . . .Morrison succeeds in making readers empathize with Haley even as she admires the “genius” underlying her father’s criminal behavior. This elegantly conceived and written novel provides an unforgettable interrogation of whether coming to terms with one’s own family always involves a degree of insanity. Morrison is a writer to watch.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Lynda Obst

"A terrific thriller . . . puts a very contemporary dysfunctional family at the heart of a very contemporary dystopian reality."

Irvine Welsh

"One of the most provocative, intelligent and original novelists working in Britain today."

Atom Egoyan

"Urgent and exciting, harnessing our current global anxiety with a beautifully observed family drama."

Antonia Senior

"I loved everything about [this book] . . . the voice, the world, the humour, the darkness . . . Read now, thank me later..."

Lucy Mangan

"This is an absolutely brilliant read."

Lionel Shriver

Stylishly crisp, thematically germane—and great fun.” 

Tim Minchin

"A brilliant, intriguing, harrowing, illuminating story."

The Herald (Scottland)

A complex, thought-provoking drama about fake news, real fears and frayed family ties . . . both exciting and terrifying . . . a bold and compelling book by a writer whose creative risks continue to pay huge dividends.

David Shields

How To Survive Everything is a gritty and (tragically) cool novel. The collision of a broken family and a global pandemic, it reads as a survival guide and feels like (is) a warning.

Ian Rankin

"I wasn’t sure there could be a great pandemic novel. Here it is."

Library Journal

07/01/2022

From Morrison, a Saltire Society Scottish Fiction Book of the Year honoree, this multi-award-nominated thriller features two children kidnapped by their divorced father, who's determined to hide them away from what he believes will be the next ferocious wave of pandemic.

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

In the future, with threats of another deadly pandemic on the horizon, Haley and her younger brother, Ben, are kidnapped by their noncustodial father, Ed, and taken to a prepper hideaway in the UK. Caitlin Kelly perfectly portrays 15-year-old Haley, who tells this dystopian story in the first person. Kelly's pacing and inflection make Haley's voice entirely believable as she is frustrated by her parents and unsure of whom and what to believe. Listeners struggle along with Haley—and a wild cast of supporting characters—to determine what is really going on in the outside world. This is a story of extremes in actions, beliefs, and attitudes and may make listeners uncomfortable despite the fascinating questions it raises about society, family, and the future. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178637449
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos