Lou Connor wants to escape her life of poverty, so she travels from Sydney to the US as an exchange student. But her host-family, the Hardings - who live in a prefabricated mansion in a nameless Chicago suburb - are in suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection. From the very beginning, nothing is as it seems.

Lou Connor wants to escape her emotionally crass family and life of poverty, so she travels from Sydney to the USA as an exchange student. But her host-family, the Hardings - who live in a prefabricated mansion in a nameless Chicago suburb - are in suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection. From the very beginning, nothing is as it seems.

Details

ISBN13: 9780143204770
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 336
Edition:
Publication Date: 28 Jun 2010
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Publication City, Country: Hawthorn, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 17.9(H)x11.1(L)x2.4(W)208
Weight (gm): 208

Author Biography

M.J. Hyland was born in London to Irish parents in 1968 and spent her early childhood in Dublin.She studied English and Law at the University of Melbourne and worked as a lawyer for several years. How the Light Gets In, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Age Book of the Year Award, and was the joint winner of the Best Young Australian Novelist Award. Her second novel, Carry Me Down, was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and wonboth the Hawthornden andEncore Prizes. Her most recentnovel is This is How. Hyland lives in Manchester, England, where she teaches in the Centre for New Writing atthe University of Manchester.

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