Synopses & Reviews
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is 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.
Review
“His prose is simple but poetic, his world strange but utterly believableif he was South American we would call this magic realism rather than fantasy.” The Times (London) on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“Poignant and heartbreaking, eloquent and frightening, impeccably rendered, its a fable that reminds us how our lives are shaped by childhood experiences, what we gain from them and the price we pay.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
“[W]orthy of a sleepless night . . . a fairy tale for adults that explores both innocence lost and the enthusiasm for seeing whats past ones proverbial fence . . . Gaiman is a master of creating worlds just a step to the left of our own.” USA Today on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“Remarkable . . . wrenchingly, gorgeously elegiac. . . . [I]n The Ocean at the End of the Lane, [Gaiman] summons up childhood magic and adventure while acknowledging their irrevocable loss, and he stitches the elegiac contradictions together so tightly that you wont see the seams.” Star Tribune (Minneapolis) on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“[A] compelling tale for all ages . . . entirely absorbing and wholly moving.” New York Daily News on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“[A] story concerning the bewildering gulf between the innocent and the authoritative, the powerless and the powerful, the child and the adult. . . . Ocean is a novel to approach without caution; the author is clearly operating at the height of his career.” The Atlantic Wire on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“Ocean has that nearly invisible prose that keeps the focus firmly on the storytelling, and not on the writing. . . . This simple exterior hides something much more interesting; in the same way that what looks like a pond can really be an ocean.” io9
Review
“This slim novel, gorgeously written, keeps its talons in you long after youve finished.” New York Post on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“In Gaimans latest romp through otherworldly adventure, a young boy discovers a neighboring familys supernatural secret. Soon his innocence is tested by ancient, magical forces, and he learns the power of true friendship. The result is a captivating read, equal parts sweet, sad, and spooky.” Parade on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“The Ocean at the End of the Lane is fun to read, filled with his trademarked blend of sinister whimsy. Gaimans writing is like dangerous candyyoure certain theres ground glass somewhere, but it just tastes so good!” Bookish (Houston Chronicle book blog)
Review
“The impotence of childhood is often the first thing sentimental adults forget about it; Gaiman is able to resurrect, with brutal immediacy, the abject misery of being unable to control ones own life.” Laura Miller, Salon
Review
“[W]ry and freaky and finally sad. . . . This is how Gaiman works his charms. . . . He crafts his stories with one eye on the old world, on Irish folktales and Robin Hood and Camelot, and the other on particle physics and dark matter.” Chicago Tribune on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Review
“Gaiman has crafted an achingly beautiful memoir of an imagination and a spellbinding story that sets three women at the center of everything. . . .[I]ts a meditation on memory and mortality, a creative reflection on how the defining moments of childhood can inhabit the worlds we imagine.” Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
Review
“When I finally closed the last page of this slim volume it was with the realization that Id just finished one of those uncommon perfect books that come along all too rarely in a readers life.” Charles DeLint, < i=""> The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction <> on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
Synopsis
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror,
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaimans first new novel for adults since his #1
New York Times bestseller
Anansi Boys.This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...
About the Author
Neil Gaiman has written highly acclaimed books for both children and adults. He has won many major awards, including the Hugo and the Nebula, and his New York Times bestselling novel The Graveyard Book is the only work ever to win both the Newbery (US) and Carnegie (UK) Medals. His books for readers of all ages include the bestselling Coraline, also an Academy Award-nominated film; Fortunately, the Milk; Odd and the Frost Giants; and The Wolves in the Walls. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.