The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A special Christmas edition of the bestseller.

WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2013 BOOK OF THE YEAR

It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive. There is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it.

His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark.

“told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.”

Revealing any more of the plot will only spoil the pleasure of discovery, and there is so much to enjoy, not least the way Gaiman can take the mundane - a button, a duck pond - and build a textured world that evokes the universal, whether it be the unsettling image of a dressing gown hanging from a door or in making real the taste of fresh cream and warm porridge. - Sydney Morning Herald

Gaiman is at his fantasy-master best here. - Who Weekly, Australia

Whatever the audience, it's one of Gaiman's most accessible works, a story that not just recognises the primal power of mythology but harnesses it to great effect. - Sun Herald, Sydney

It's a beautiful and frightening fairy tale; it's also the master fantasist's most emotionally raw, personal novel to date. - Time Australia

...there is also something rather more ambiguous at work in it, a sense the trauma that has so unsettled its narrator's life remains unresolved, and that the many gaps in the narrator's account are symptomatic of a more profound psychic dissonance. In the end it is this quality that lends this strange and deceptively simple novel its power. - Weekend Australian

Neil Gaiman is the author of over thirty acclaimed books and graphic novels for adults and children, including AMERICAN GODS, STARDUST, CORALINE and THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. His most recent novel for adults, THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE was highly acclaimed, appeared on the hardback and paperback Sunday Times bestseller lists and won several awards, including being voted Book of the Year in the National Book Awards 2013: 'Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' Joanne Harris.

The recipient of numerous literary honours, Neil Gaiman's work has been adapted for film, television and radio. He has written scripts for Doctor Who, worked with authors and illustrators including Terry Pratchett, Dave McKean and Chris Riddell, and THE SANDMAN is established as one of the classic graphic novels. As George R R Martin says: 'There's no one quite like Neil Gaiman.'

Originally from England, Neil Gaiman now lives in America.

A special Christmas edition of the bestseller.WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2013 BOOK OF THE YEARIt began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive. There is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac - as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly's wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark.

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