Wednesday, March 13, 2013

BEST-SELLING BOOKS: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hoddon




SYNOPSIS

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.





Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher’s mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.





Author Biography:

MARK HADDON is a writer and illustrator of numerous award-winning children’s books and television screenplays. As a young man, Haddon worked with autistic individuals. He teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation and at Oxford University. He lives in Oxford, England.

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

— courtesy of Barnes & Nobles


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Review
There's no point resisting the charm of this hugely entertaining adaptation of the bestselling novel, writes Lyn Gardner


Unnerved, Like All of Us, by Life’s Strangeness ‘Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ in London — The New York Times




The National Theatre's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel about 15-year-old Christopher Boone, a maths genius with Asperger's Syndrome, transfers to the Apollo Theatre in London's West End in March. Here, director Marianne Elliott - who also directed hit show War Horse - and actor Luke Treadaway discuss the transfer and its innovative staging


No comments:

Post a Comment

"Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart."

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...