 | |
| Author | Ewan Morrison |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Speculative fiction |
| Published |
|
Publication date | March 1, 2021 |
| Pages | 357 |
| ISBN | 9781913393151 |
How to Survive Everything is a 2021 speculative fiction novel by Ewan Morrison. It was longlisted for the 2021 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
Ben and Haley are brother and sister and the children of a paranoid doomsday prepper, Ed. Upon hearing of the possibility of an upcoming pandemic, their father forces them to accompany him to a remote piece of land to ride out the future disaster along with several of his followers. [1] [2]
How to Survive Everything received generally positive reviews from critics. [3] Allan Massie praised Morrison for avoiding issues common in other dystopian novels such as poor characterization and noted Haley's sense of humor. [4] The Herald noted the book's careful handling of its themes. [5] Stuart Kelly wrote positively in The Spectator about the novel's plot and praised Morrison for humanizing doomsday preppers. [6] By contrast, Ben H. Winters panned the book in The New York Times , criticizing Morrison's narrative structure and describing the dialogue as "clumsy and forced." [2]
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives international publicity which usually leads to a sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014 it was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial.
Ian Russell McEwan, is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".
Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
William McIlvanney was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He was known as Gus by friends and acquaintances. McIlvanney was a champion of gritty yet poetic literature; his works Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, and Walking Wounded are all known for their portrayal of Glasgow in the 1970s. He is regarded as "the father of Tartan Noir" and as Scotland's Camus.
Allan Johnstone Massie is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Selkirk.
Tartan Noir is a form of crime fiction particular to Scotland and Scottish writers. It has its roots in Scottish literature but borrows elements from elsewhere, including from the work of American crime writers of the second half of the twentieth century, especially of the hard-boiled genre, and of European authors.
Laidlaw is the first novel of a series of crime books by William McIlvanney, first published in 1977. It features the eponymous detective in his attempts to find the brutal sex related murderer of a Glasgow teenager. Laidlaw is marked by his unconventional methods in tracking the killer, immersing himself in a 1970s Glasgow featuring violence and bigotry.
Ewan Morrison is a Scottish author and screenwriter, described as "the most fluent and intelligent writer of his generation here in Scotland" by Booker judge Stuart Kelly.
Maria Joan Hyland is an ex-lawyer and the author of three novels: How the Light Gets In (2004), Carry Me Down (2006) and This is How (2009). Hyland is a lecturer in creative writing in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester. Carry Me Down (2006) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Hawthornden Prize and the Encore Prize.
Sweet Tooth is a novel by the English writer Ian McEwan, published on 21 August 2012. It deals with the experiences of its protagonist, Serena Frome, during the early 1970s. After graduating from Cambridge she is recruited by MI5, and becomes involved in a covert program to combat communism by infiltrating the intellectual world. When she becomes romantically involved with her mark, complications ensue.
Stuart Evers is a British novelist, short story writer and critic, born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1976. He was brought up in Congleton, Cheshire.
Weekend is a novel by the Scottish writer William McIlvanney published in 2006.
Stuart Kelly is a Scottish critic and author. He is the literary editor of The Scotsman.
Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American writer and fashion designer. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he studied at the Scottish College of Textiles and at London's Royal College of Art, before moving at the age of 24 to New York City, where he built a successful career in fashion design, while also beginning to write. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain – which had initially been turned down by many publishers on both sides of the Atlantic – was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize. His second novel, Young Mungo, was published in April 2022.
Shuggie Bain is the debut novel by Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, published in 2020. It tells the story of the youngest of three children, Shuggie, growing up with his alcoholic mother Agnes in 1980s post-industrial working-class Glasgow.
Isobel Murray is a Scottish literary scholar, Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen. She edited the work of Oscar Wilde and Naomi Mitchison. She also edited a series of interviews which she and her husband Bob Tait carried out with Scottish writers, and wrote a biography of the writer Jessie Kesson.
Mary Paulson-Ellis is a Scottish writer and novelist. She writes across the genres of literary, crime and historical fiction. Her work has appeared in the Guardian and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her books have received a number of awards. Paulson-Ellis’ first novel, The Other Mrs Walker (2016) became a Times bestseller and was named Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year in 2017.
Oh William! is a novel by American writer Elizabeth Strout, published on October 19, 2021, by Random House. The novel returns to the fictional rural town of Amgash, Illinois, from Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016) and Anything Is Possible (2017).
Bloody Scotland is a Scottish international crime writing festival, held annually in Stirling, Scotland. It was founded in 2012 by Tartan Noir writers Lin Anderson and Alex Gray and describes itself as "the literary festival where you can let down your hair and enjoy a drink at the bar with your favourite crime writer". Its sponsors include the University of Stirling and Stirling Council. In 2022 most events were held at the Albert Halls or the Tolbooth.