What I Was and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.69

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
What I Was
 
 
Start reading What I Was on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

What I Was [Hardcover]

Meg Rosoff
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.99  
Hardcover --  
Paperback £5.59  
Audio, CD, Audiobook £15.37  
Multimedia CD, Audiobook --  
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Puffin; First Impression edition (30 Aug 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141383437
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141383439
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 287,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Meg Rosoff
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Visit Amazon's Meg Rosoff Page

Product Description

Review

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

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(2)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle, lucid, brilliant - a masterpiece, 24 Aug 2008
By 
This review is from: What I Was (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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A story of friendship and love, 19 Sep 2007
This review is from: What I Was (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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read, 23 Jun 2008
By 
Jade x (Cwmbran, Wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What I Was (Hardcover)
This book conjures up the same heart warming, life-questioning emotions as How I Live Now did, something that I felt Just In Case did not.
I just wish Rosoff's books were longer, with such intriguing writing methods she constantly keeps us hooked to the story. Some how I have come to believe that Rosoff works best when describing the long and often harrowing journies of a person and the architecture of the buildings they come across, as both How I Live Now and What I Was contained these features, something that made the books stand out to me.
With Hilary describing his journey from St.Oswald school to the life he wishes he has in Finn's hut, both factors of architecture and journey are opened up and gives us a vivid imagination of what the journey is like. The emotion between two people, I believe, has never failed to be written well by Rosoff and at times can bring on laughter and tears with just one line.
I hope Rosoff will continue to write such amazing books as this.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 29 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars 
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback