Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane

As our readers may have noticed, I was on vacation last week. For my fourteen hour drive to North Carolina, I picked up a few audiobooks and the one I was most excited about was Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane (click here for the audiobook version). Already a fan of Gaiman's, I was moved and delighted by his newest novel for adults since Anansi Boys in 2005.

This is the story of a middle-aged man who returns to his childhood home, and this journey awakens long-forgotten memories of one fateful summer. When he was seven, he met an uncannily wise eleven-year-old girl from the end of his lane who claimed the pond behind her house was an ocean. Their meeting sets off a chain reaction of fantastical events that will have enormous repercussions for them both. However, saying much else would give away too much of this enchanting story.

Gaiman reads his own work with confidence and command, and while he does not create distinctly different voices for the characters as some audiobook performers do, his rendition is emotional and powerful. The book breathes childhood with every word, evoking melancholy nostalgia. Gaiman perfectly captures the wonder, mystery, and magic of childhood and explores other themes such as friendship, loyalty, and learning from mistakes. However, he does not shy away from the terror of childhood, including one gut-twisting scene with a worm. The book is profound without pretension and youthful without saccharine naivety. Those who like their reads short will also like the novel, since it clocks in at around 6 hours or 192 pages. Pick this one up - The Ocean at the End of the Lane is not to be missed.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian