NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic—both poignant and funny—about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world.“Disorienting and reorienting the reader to devastating effect.... Suspenseful and harrowing.” —The New York Times Book ReviewChristopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number...

'Tender, transporting, creative and beautifully written ... Simply glorious, from start to finish' Rachel Clarke, author of Dear LifeSimultaneously heart-breaking and darkly hilarious, Leaving Home is a portrait of the artist both as a child and as an adult.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 ...

A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. At sixty-one, George Hall is settling down to a comfortable retirement. When his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting married to the deeply inappropriate Ray, the Hall family is thrown into a tizzy. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his m...

**The bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time weaves ancient fables into fresh, unexpected forms and forges new unforgettable legends.'A marvel of a collection' Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time‘A consummate storyteller’ New York Times**The myth of the Minotaur in his labyrinth is turned into a wrenching parable of maternal love – and of the monstrosities of patriarchy.The lover of a god...

Boom! Is a roller-coaster read with spaceships, spies and mortal danger!Jim and his best friend Charlie weren't looking for adventure, when they decided to bug the staffroom . . . But then they overhear their teachers speaking in a secret language and it's too late to turn back. And now they have to explain to the police, the headmistress and their parents where they've been for a whole week - without mentioning the aliens.

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...

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 ...

‘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...

Six of the best recent short stories, disassembled by their authors. Magic & Mechanics features six phenomenal stories, each followed by an interview with its author exploring how it was written. An innovative anthology revealing the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in great writing. An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works…

SOMETHING HAS FALLEN AWAY.We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject.Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Geo...

'The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead. There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog.'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's, a ...

A magical story from Mark Haddon, author of the phenomenally best-selling ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’When the children wake up one morning the air is silent and the room is full of soft blue light."It's snowed!" says Alice."It's like the North Pole!”It is the first big snowfall of the year and for Alice, Jess and Robin it means a day off school. They can't wait to to put on their scarves and hats, woolly gloves and wellingtons and go ou...