A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brai...

Mark Haddon’s parents were not really cut out for the job of having children. They were cut out, respectively, for the jobs of designing abattoirs and keeping a pathologically clean and tidy house. At least Mark had the consolations of the Weetabix Solar System wallchart, Walnut Whips and the occasional Babycham.Astringently honest and scalpel sharp, this is a book about being different and seeing the world differently. It’s about being a cartoonist and a care assistant. It’s about...

From the acclaimed author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time comes this stunningly ambitious, fantastical novel that reworks Shakespeare's Pericles into a parable for today.Mark Haddon's breathtaking novel begins with a harrowing plane crash: Maja, the pregnant wife of the unimaginably wealthy Philippe, is killed, but their daughter, Angelique, survives. Philippe's obsession with the girl's safety morphs into something sinister a...

George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” Some things in life can’t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie’s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retir...

The dazzling first short story collection from the acclaimed, best-selling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.The tales in The Pier Falls, Mark Haddon's lyrical and uncompromising short story collection, take many forms—Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realism—but all of them showcase his immense gifts of invention and penetrating insight. In these pages, a boy's life is marked by the...

"The novel's pleasure, there in spades, lies in Haddon's caustic wit, his pitch-perfect nailing of each of his characters, and in his absurdly concise descriptions of the most banal activities. . . . In providing it, Haddon proves himself, once again, to be a brilliant, modern observer and cataloguer of human vice and frailty." —National PostThe setup of Mark Haddon's brilliant new novel is simple: Richard, a wealthy doctor, invites his estranged sister, A...

This schools' edition of Mark Haddon's multi-award-winning novel adapted for the stage of the National Theatre by Simon Stephens is perfect for Key Stages 3 and 4. Featuring the play script from the Modern Plays edition but with the language adjusted for school use*, this edition includes a wealth of classroom activities for the English and drama classrooms.Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minut...

From the "terrifyingly talented" (The Times, [London]) author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Porpoise, eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of loveFor millenia Greek myths have fascinated people, who have seen in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existe...

From the moment that Jimbo and his best friend Charlie bug the staff room and overhear two of their teachers speaking to each other in a secret language, they know that nothing is as it seems. But what does "spudvetch" mean, and why do Mr. Kidd's eyes flicker with fluroscent blue light when Charlie says it to him? Perhaps the teachers are bank robbers speaking in code; perhaps they're spies, or aliens. Whatever they are, Jimbo and Charlie know that there is a big adventure on its way: a nu...

‘I often ask myself what makes a story work,’ wrote the greatAmerican author, Flannery O’Connor. ‘I have decided that it isprobably some action, some gesture of a character... which isboth totally right and totally unexpected... one that is both incharacter and beyond character.’The five stories shortlisted for this year’s BBC NationalShort Story Award with Book Trust all feature peoplemaking just such gestures, acting in ways that reach be...

A magical celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing from the bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.Years ago there was a little boy who dreamed of rocketing to the moon, of landing on the crumbly rock and walking across the Sea of Tranquility.He borrowed library books and read how astronauts had orbited the earth and walked in space. And every night he hoped that they would find a way to land on the moon and walk where he had ...

From the phenomenally bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time comes Mark Haddon’s first collection of poems.The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea reveals a poet of great versatility and formal talent. All the gifts so admired in Haddon’s prose are in strong evidence here—the humanity, the dark humour, and the uncanny ventriloquism—but Haddon is also a writer of considerable seriousness, ly...