When a good writer writes, even if it is their first book, you can "hear" their voice.
Here, Meg Rosoff, the author of "How I Live Now," has none of the angst and apprehension of a first-time writer (or at least, she doesn't let you see it). Hers is a debut marked with confidence: It is as if she has rolled up her sleeves and just gotten down to the business of storytelling -- no hemming and hawing here.
My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go.