Shortlisted for the NZ Post Children's Book Awards and the Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian Premiers' Literary Awards.

Seventeen-year-old Will is in turmoil after the sudden death of his mother. His father drifts and his older brother Adam stays away from home. Isolated and angry, Will begins a search for the answers he craves. He uses his mum's old camera to document the experience and scrambles to find an idea for which he can live and die. And as if things weren't complicated enough, he falls for sixteen-year-old Taryn. His final exams are looming, but how will he get through the tangle of grief and philosophy, sex and love?

The Beginner's Guide to Living is a stunning debut novel that announces the arrival of a fabulous new writer. Lia Hills has written a book about grief, ideas and experience, about those moments in your life that change you forever.

'Beautifully crafted and doesn't shy away from exploring first love, sex and drugs.' Sunday Age