'I was at boarding school in East Anglia, my third. I didn’t want to be there. But if there had been no school, there would be no Finn. He lived in a hut on the coast. He was like the hut, in fact – it took a while for both of them to warm up. But that is all I longed for. Finn, warming to me. A nod. Half a smile. Asking me to help on the boat. Not asking me to leave. I didn’t want it to end. Now I am waiting for the end, and looking back to the beginning.' Haunting, intense and with a surprising twist in the tale – What I Was is unlike anything you will have read before . . .
What I Was
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Review
A plot that is at once thrilling and sensitively told
-- The Observer
Rosoff's latest and perhaps most perfect novel ...it's already a classic -- The Sunday Times
-- The Observer
Rosoff's latest and perhaps most perfect novel ...it's already a classic -- The Sunday Times
Review
A plot that is at once thrilling and sensitively told
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Edmund Prowe
Format:Paperback
This is a luminous, lucid, brilliant book - which is ironic, as in some ways it's a book about what isn't said or seen. Told in a subtle, witty, intelligent voice, this is funny, thoughtful and ultimately very moving - so complex and skilful that the "love story" or "coming-of-age story" labels simply don't do justice to it.
In the mundane, bleak world of a sixties boarding school next to the sinking East Anglian coastline, the narrator stumbles on the hut where a boy, Finn, lives alone, fending for himself. Entranced by Finn's beauty, strength, and freedom, he observes and then shares the idyll, escaping from a background of mediocrity and duplicity before inadvertently acting as the catalyst for the destruction of Finn's life. The relationship is perfectly judged - subtle, understated, described with a warmth and honesty that is laudable - and Rosoff encapsulates the feeling of attraction that is less I-want-you than I-want-to-be-you perfectly. The book acknowledges the self-absorption and naivety of the narrator without his losing our sympathy, and while his love for Finn is ambiguous at least it remains one of the most recognisable portrayals of desire I've ever read. In terms of action, it's fairly slow - don't anticipate wars, shootings, plane crashes, car crashes... and yet I found it the most compelling of Rosoff's books, utterly absorbing and truthful. It is also, of course, very funny.
I notice that the new cover is utterly romantic fiction - but don't be put off. This is far more gripping and interesting than it looks. It is probably more of a women's book than a men's one - I found the narrator perfectly male, but then I'm female, and my male friends have expressed some doubts - but it is sharper, more austere and has more integrity than that soft-focus seascape would seem to imply. So buy it anyway. Buy the kids' edition. Or buy one of each.
In the mundane, bleak world of a sixties boarding school next to the sinking East Anglian coastline, the narrator stumbles on the hut where a boy, Finn, lives alone, fending for himself. Entranced by Finn's beauty, strength, and freedom, he observes and then shares the idyll, escaping from a background of mediocrity and duplicity before inadvertently acting as the catalyst for the destruction of Finn's life. The relationship is perfectly judged - subtle, understated, described with a warmth and honesty that is laudable - and Rosoff encapsulates the feeling of attraction that is less I-want-you than I-want-to-be-you perfectly. The book acknowledges the self-absorption and naivety of the narrator without his losing our sympathy, and while his love for Finn is ambiguous at least it remains one of the most recognisable portrayals of desire I've ever read. In terms of action, it's fairly slow - don't anticipate wars, shootings, plane crashes, car crashes... and yet I found it the most compelling of Rosoff's books, utterly absorbing and truthful. It is also, of course, very funny.
I notice that the new cover is utterly romantic fiction - but don't be put off. This is far more gripping and interesting than it looks. It is probably more of a women's book than a men's one - I found the narrator perfectly male, but then I'm female, and my male friends have expressed some doubts - but it is sharper, more austere and has more integrity than that soft-focus seascape would seem to imply. So buy it anyway. Buy the kids' edition. Or buy one of each.
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is another wonderful book from Meg Rosoff. As she demonstrated in her previous novels How I Live Now and Just In Case, Ms Rosoff has a gift for getting inside the adolescent mind. What I Was is a story of friendship and love, recounted by Hilary in his old age when the coast of East Anglia, where his story unfolds, has slipped into the sea.
It is 1962 and Hilary, a difficult and unhappy 16 year old at a boarding school in Suffolk meets Finn, a boy of his own age who lives alone in a fisherman's cottage and whose enviable existence has somehow escaped the education authorities. The story of their relationship is sensitively and intelligently told, there is a tragedy, a twist and a scandal, and an ending which had this reader in tears.
It is 1962 and Hilary, a difficult and unhappy 16 year old at a boarding school in Suffolk meets Finn, a boy of his own age who lives alone in a fisherman's cottage and whose enviable existence has somehow escaped the education authorities. The story of their relationship is sensitively and intelligently told, there is a tragedy, a twist and a scandal, and an ending which had this reader in tears.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Jo Bennie
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
The memories of a Hilary, a man in old age remembering events in 1962 when he met and fell in love with Finn, a boy his own age living alone in a tiny hut on an island near by his school. The fact that it is clear that the man writing this memoir is recalling personal history with deep pain and regret adds to the aching tenderness of this powerful story and the sense that tragedy is sure to strike long before it does.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely book, wonderful for teenagers or adults.
i realise this pitched towards teenagers, and it touches on a popular theme - being able to run away and live an independent life, free from adult interference. Read more
Published 2 months ago by CatherineMT
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad but uplifting as well
This is an achingly sad memoir of an older man who is remembering the memories of being a school boy in 1962, I was not sure about the book at first but the story line very soon... Read more
Published 3 months ago by rueyclem
3.0 out of 5 stars
Review: What I Was by Meg Rosoff
What's Good About It
Meg Rosoff does write beautifully. Her prose is haunting and perfectly captures the intensity of the relationship between the main character and... Read more
Meg Rosoff does write beautifully. Her prose is haunting and perfectly captures the intensity of the relationship between the main character and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Liberty Gilmore
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
Very well written, and i love the twist at the end! I will definitely read her work again,as she is a fantastic author
Published 4 months ago by Rachel Latham
4.0 out of 5 stars
memorable
i really enjoyed reading this developing relationship and how these people lived and the landscape of the beach. HOW DOES SHE THINK UP THESE STORIES? SHE'S AMAZING. Read more
Published 10 months ago by lesley
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful but not flawless
What a beautifully written book! It really it startlingly poetic. I enjoyed it most for its language, but also for the relationship that saves a boarding school student from the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by DP
5.0 out of 5 stars
For young and old alike
The minute I'd finished reading this book I recommended it to my teenage son.
This a painful story about growing up, fitting in, and not fitting in. Read more
This a painful story about growing up, fitting in, and not fitting in. Read more
Published 12 months ago by SallyJ
3.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric but unconvincing
This really is a difficult one - the descriptions of the awful boarding school with its equally nasty food are really very good, and funny with it. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Lou79
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting and magical
As a grown-up I love this book, but I imagine that it will also capture the heart of much younger readers. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Scarmoge
4.0 out of 5 stars
So amazing. Wanted to give it 5 stars but...
... it simply wasn't as good as How I Live Now.
But I fell head over heels into this book~ the utterly simple things in this book manage to twist themselves into more... Read more
But I fell head over heels into this book~ the utterly simple things in this book manage to twist themselves into more... Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2011
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