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Meg Rosoff Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff

Meg Rosoff Biography

Meg Rosoff was born in Boston in 1956, second of four sisters, grew up in the Boston suburbs, went to ordinary suburban schools for most of her youth, and was rejected from Princeton in 1974 and went to Harvard instead.

After three years she applied to art school in London, was accepted for a year studying sculpture, packed a bag and got on a plane. She stayed in a bed and breakfast in Knightsbridge until she found a room in a flat in Camden Town, with an architect who later became her boyfriend.

Eventually she returned to the US to finish her degree, moved to New York City, spent ten short years working in publishing and advertising, and then one day quit her job, told all her friends I was going back to London for three months, and has been there ever since.

She lives with her husband and daughter. After a fifteen-year stint in advertising her youngest sister died of breast cancer. Soon afterwards, Rosoff wrote How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Award (2004), Michael L. Printz Award (2005), and the Branford Boase Award (2005), and was shortlisted for the 2004 Whitbread Awards. Her second novel, Just In Case, won the Carnegie Medal in 2007. Rosoff's other works include Meet Wild Boars, What I Was, Jumpy Jack and Googily, Wild Boars Cook, The Bride's Farewell, Vamoose, and There Is No Dog, as well as a non-fiction book, London Guide: Your Passport to Great Travel.

Meg Rosoff's website

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Interview

In two separate interviews Meg Rosoff discusses the inspiration for her first novel, How I Live Now and her second, Just in Case.

Q. How were you able to get into the mind of a teenage boy? How did it feel to write from a perspective so distant from your own? Justin reminded one reader of Holden Caulfield. Are there any other characters in literature to whom you think Justin compares, or who inspired your creation of Justin?

A: I think I'm something of a chameleon at heart, because I don't have any trouble getting into the brain of a teenage boy. Of course there are plenty of teenage boys I couldn't begin to understand, but Justin isn't exactly macho, or even particularly male. I've always thought of a long horizontal "gender line," with really macho male men way over on the left, and really feminine, girly girls way over on the right. And because I was always a tomboy and never thought of myself as particularly girly, I imagine myself as fairly near the center of the line. So crossing over it and writing from a male point of view isn't that hard for me. Though I don't think I could get inside Arnold Schwarzenegger's head!

I don't know about another character in literature like Justin—there's a lot of me in him, though I was never quite as loopy as he is. But I remember distinctly the feeling that I didn't ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Meg Rosoff at BookBrowse
Jonathan Unleashed jacket There Is No Dog jacket The Bride's Farewell jacket What I Was jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Meg Rosoff but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • David Almond

    David Almond

    David Almond, in his own words:

    I was born in Newcastle and I grew up in a big Catholic family in Felling-on-Tyne. I had four sisters and a brother and lots of relatives in the streets nearby. My dad had been in Burma ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    How I Live Now

    Try:
    The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
    by David Almond

  • Niccolò Ammaniti

    Niccolò Ammaniti

    Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. He is the author of three novels, as well as a collection of short stories. At thirty-four, he was the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Viareggio-Repaci prize for I'm Not... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    What I Was

    Try:
    I'm Not Scared
    by Niccolò Ammaniti

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