Synopses & Reviews
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home and is drawn to the farm at the end of the road where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl and her mother and grandmother. As he sits by the pond behind the ramshackle old house, the unremembered past comes flooding back—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
“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
“Gaiman mines mythological typology--the three-foldgoddess, the water of life (the pond, actually an ocean)--and his own childhood milieu to build the cosmology and theater of a story he tells more gracefully than any hes told since Stardust...[a] lovely yarn.” Booklist (starred review) on OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“[A] compelling tale for all ages . . . entirely absorbing and wholly moving.” New York Daily News on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
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“[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
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“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
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“[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
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“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)
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“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
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“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
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“Mr. Gaiman labels [his novel] ‘for all ages, which is exactly right. It has grief, fear and regret, as well as love and awe-adult emotions, but children feel them too…. [L]ike all Mr. Gaimans work, this is fantasy of the very best.” Wall Street Journal on THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
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“[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
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“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)
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“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 is a New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books for adults and children, including the novels Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book; the Sandman series of graphic novels; and Make Good Art, the text of a commencement speech he delivered at Philadelphias University of the Arts.
He is the recipient of numerous literary honors, including the Locus and Hugo Awards and the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. 1.8 million people follow him on Twitter.
Born and raised in England, Neil Gaiman now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, the rock star Amanda Palmer.