A powerful debut from an Australian novelist that features one of the most likeable but contrary figures you are likely to meet in contemporary fiction.

Lou Connor, a gifted, unhappy sixteen-year-old, is desperate to escape her life of poverty in Sydney. When she is offered an exchange student placement at a school in America it seems as if her dreams will be fulfilled.

Her host family has a beautiful house in Illinois and couldn't be more welcoming . . . until she starts to be distubed by the suffocating and repressed atmosphere of their suburban mansion and things begin to go terribly wrong.

How the Light Gets In is an acutely observed story of adolescence, reminiscent of American Beauty in its dissection of engrained prejudices and middle-class hypocrisy. In Lou Connor, Hyland has created a larger-than-life protagonist who mesmerises the reader with her vivacity and vulnerability, from hopeful beginning to unexpected, haunting end.

First novel by Man Booker Prize shortlisted author.

About the Author

M.J Hyland is an ex-lawyer and the author of three multi-award-winning novels: How the Light Gets In (2004), Carry Me Down (2006) and This is How (2009). Carry Me Down (2006) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won both the Hawthornden Prize and the Encore Award. M.J Hyland has twice been longlisted for the Orange Prize (2004 and 2009), the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (2004 and 2007) and This is How (2009) was also longlisted for the Dublin International IMPAC prize.

M.J Hyland is also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester where she runs fiction workshops, alongside Martin Amis (2007-2010), Colm Toibin (2010-2011) and Jeanette Winterson (2013 - ). M.J Hyland also runs regular Fiction Masterclasses in the Guardian Masterclass Programme, and has twice been shortlisted for the BBC Short Story Prize (2011 and 2012). She also publishes in the Guardian 'How to Write' series, and has written nonfiction for the Financial Times, Granta, the New Yorker and elsewhere. M.J Hyland is also co-founder of the Hyland & Byrne Editing Firm (see - www.editingfirm & www.mjhyland.com)

Reviews
The best book I read this year - brilliantly written. -- Mark Cousins * * Scotland on Sunday * *
Heartbreaking and compelling. * * Observer * *
[Hyland] brings the long-forgotten teenage sensation of drowning in life's uncomprehended complexities horribly alive. * * The Times * *
Hyland's biting debut novel tells of teen anguish in a world that treats such anguish as a crime. Unlike Mean Girls, Hyland's novel doesn't borrow from romantic comedy to dab out the ugliness of adolescence . . . Her dry and fantastically sarcastic voice serves a judicious helping of cheek to peddlers of the American Dream. * * Time Out New York * *


Awards
Short-listed for Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Best First Book 2004 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781841956114
Author M.J. Hyland
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 226g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm