The Body

The No. 1 bestselling author Stephen King's timeless coming-of-age novella, The Body - set in Castle Rock and originally published in his 1982 short story collection Different Seasons, and adapted into the film classic Stand by Me - is now available as a stand-alone publication.

We'd all listened to the Ray Brower story . . . he was a kid our age

The small town of Castle Rock is tuning in to the news of a young boy who has gone missing from a nearby town.

Gordie Lachance and his three friends set off along the railway tracks on a quest, determined to become famous by officially finding the boy's body.

But their journey becomes a rite of passage, and as they cross the railway trestle and the tracks begin to hum, the boys encounter an intimation of their own mortality.

Adapted into the 1986 classic film Stand By Me, The Body is an iconic exploration of friendship, loneliness and adventure, an unforgettable coming-of-age story by master chronicler of small-town adolescence and universal experience, Stephen King.

“King readers know that he is an absolute master of the long story - DAILY EXPRESSThe genius of King is not the fecundity of his imagination, great though it is, but the empathy he can create between reader and character - THE SCOTSMANAn incredibly gifted writer - GUARDIAN”

King readers know that he is an absolute master of the long story DAILY EXPRESS
The genius of King is not the fecundity of his imagination, great though it is, but the empathy he can create between reader and character THE SCOTSMAN
An incredibly gifted writer GUARDIAN

STEPHEN KING is the author of more than seventy books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. The long novella is a form King has returned to over and over again, and many have been turned into celebrated films, TV series and streamed events including 1922, Apt Pupil, The Body ( Stand By Me ), The Langoliers, The Mist and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption which was the basis of The Shawshank Redemption , IMDb's top-rated movie of all time.King is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. World Number One bestseller Stephen King has captivated audiences with his stories from Carrie to Duma Key. So powerful are his originals, that they have been turned into successful films including Misery, The Green Mile, Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, directed by the world class director, Frank Darabond.

The No. 1 bestselling author Stephen King's timeless coming-of-age novella, The Body - set in Castle Rock and originally published in his 1982 short story collection Different Seasons, and adapted into the film classic Stand by Me - is now available as a stand-alone publication. We'd all listened to the Ray Brower story . . . he was a kid our age The small town of Castle Rock is tuning in to the news of a young boy who has gone missing from a nearby town.Gordie Lachance and his three friends set off along the railway tracks on a quest, determined to become famous by officially finding the boy's body.But their journey becomes a rite of passage, and as they cross the railway trestle and the tracks begin to hum, the boys encounter an intimation of their own mortality.Adapted into the 1986 classic film Stand By Me , The Body is an iconic exploration of friendship, loneliness and adventure, an unforgettable coming-of-age story by master chronicler of small-town adolescence and universal experience, Stephen King.

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