The Ocean at the End of the Lane - by Neil Gaiman Paperback

About the Book

When a middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral, he's drawn back to a place once alive with monsters and magic.

Book Synopsis

#1 New
York Times Bestseller

From #1 New York Times
bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a haunting novel that explores the awesome
power of memory, friendship, and sacrifice―one of ten classic Gaiman works
repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene
Yee
"A novel about the truths--some wonderful, some terrible--that children know and adults do not." --Time Magazine
Returning
to his childhood home to attend a funeral, a middle-aged man is drawn back to a
place once alive with monsters and magic; to a past where the impossible is all
too frighteningly real . . .

A
haunting meditation on memory, wonder, friendship, and sacrifice, The Ocean
at the End of the Lane, which was named "Book of the Year" by the UK
National Book Awards, is a groundbreaking triumph of storytelling as delicate as
a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Review Quotes

"This is fantasy of the very best." - Wall Street Journal
"[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
"Gaiman has crafted an achingly beautiful memoir of an imagination and a spellbinding story that sets three women at the center of everything. . . .[I]t's 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)
"His mind is a dark fathomless ocean, and every time I sink into it, this world fades, replaced by one far more terrible and beautiful in which I will happily drown." - New York Times Book Review
"Gaiman is a master of fear, and he understands the nature of fairytales." - A. S. Byatt, The Guardian (UK)
"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 won't see the seams." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"When I finally closed the last page of this slim volume it was with the realization that I'd just finished one of those uncommon perfect books that come along all too rarely in a reader's life." - Charles DeLint, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"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 won't see the seams." - Star Tribune (Minneapolis) on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"[A] compelling tale for all ages . . . entirely absorbing and wholly moving." - New York Daily News on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"[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
"'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' is fun to read, filled with his trademarked blend of sinister whimsy. Gaiman's writing is like dangerous candy--you're certain there's ground glass somewhere, but it just tastes so good!" - Bookish (Houston Chronicle book blog)
"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 one's own life." - Laura Miller, Salon
"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
"Poignant and heartbreaking, eloquent and frightening, impeccably rendered, it's 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)
"His prose is simple but poetic, his world strange but utterly believable--if 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
"Mr. Gaiman labels [The Ocean at the End of the Lane] '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. The best fantasy keeps its feet firmly planted in the real world while offering a vision of what lies beyond, and like all Mr. Gaiman's work, this is fantasy of the very best." - Wall Street Journal on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"Gaiman has crafted an achingly beautiful memoir of an imagination and a spellbinding story that sets three women at the center of everything. . . .It's a meditation on memory and mortality, a creative reflection on how the defining moments of childhood can inhabit the worlds we imagine." - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"[W]orthy of a sleepless night . . . a fairy tale for adults that explores both innocence lost and the enthusiasm for seeing what's past one's 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
"Gaiman lets his narrator share his memories with curious incredulousness and incredible calm. That allows the story to wash over readers, to overwhelm us slowly and deliciously. We're invited into the mist too, and it's a squirmy thing." - Savannah Morning News on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"[Gaiman] paints a child's life with wrenching sympathy and precision, and delivers and engrossing myth for our age. The Ocean at the end of the Lane, full of discovery and bonding, sacrifice and heroism, will gratify Gaiman fans and new readers alike." - Columbus Dispatch on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"Reading Gaiman's new novel, his first for adults since 2005's The Anansi Boys, is like listening to that rare friend whose dreams you actually want to hear about at breakfast.[...] Gaiman's at his fantasy-master best here - the struggle between a boy and a shape shifter with 'rotting-cloth eyes' moves at a speedy, chilling clip. What distinguishes the book, though, is its evocation of the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, a time when magic seems as likely as any other answer and good stories help us through." - People on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"This slim novel, gorgeously written, keeps its talons in you long after you've finished." - New York Post on The Ocean at the End of the Lane
"In Gaiman's latest romp through otherworldly adventure, a young boy discovers a neighboring family's 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
"A terrifying shift in the nature of things lies at the heart of Neil Gaimain's rich new novel." - The Guardian on The Ocean at the End of the Lane