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![The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel by [Neil Gaiman]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JRy1ZJx-L._SY346_.jpg)
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Kindle Edition
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A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.
This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWilliam Morrow
- Publication dateJune 18, 2013
- File size1298 KB
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Amazon.com Review
From the Inside Flap
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home and is drawn to the farm at the end of the road where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl and her mother and grandmother. As he sits by the pond -behind the ramshackle old house, the unremembered past comes flooding back--a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
“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
“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 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
“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)
“[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
“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
“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 --This text refers to the mass_market edition.
About the Author
Neil Gaiman is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of books for children and adults whose award-winning titles include Norse Mythology, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Coraline, and The Sandman graphic novels. Neil Gaiman is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College.
--This text refers to the mass_market edition.From the Back Cover
UK National Book Awards 2013 "Book of the Year"
"Fantasy of the very best." Wall Street Journal
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.
"[Gaiman's] 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
--This text refers to the mass_market edition.Product details
- ASIN : B009NFHF0Q
- Publisher : William Morrow; Reissue edition (June 18, 2013)
- Publication date : June 18, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 1298 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 259 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,927 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Neil Gaiman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book. Among his numerous literary awards are the Newbery and Carnegie medals, and the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner awards. He is a Professor in the Arts at Bard College.
Elise Hurst is a writer, fine artist and illustrator specialising in a vintage alternate reality peopled by (amongst others) lions and tigers and bears. Although she most frequently creates picture books, her work has featured in situations as varied as book covers and illustrated novels, to cards and prints, cd covers, chocolates and an imaginative advertising campaign. She works most frequently in the media of oils, watercolour and ink drawings.
She lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
Recent books:
'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Elise Hurst.
'Trying' by Kobi Yamada, Elise Hurst
https://www.facebook.com/EliseHurstArtistIllustrator/
https://www.instagram.com/elise.hurst/
Photo credit: Darren James
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"This is going to be magical!"
We do it often as children; the first time we read "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" or nab the last copy of "The Swiss Family Robinson" from the library. We are open, expectant, and still so full of wonder.
I miss that...the older I get and the more I read. The feeling I used to get when a new book was laid before me. How my eyes would light up, my breath would hitch, and this solid belief I possessed, that if I held that book close enough, or tight enough to my heart I could actually feel the words seeping into my bones. Etching their story into a place of permanence so I would never forget them. I could look at a book and think...
"This is going to be magical."
And I would truly, honestly, believe it.
Today that feeling was given back to me. Today...my eyes shimmered and my fingers tingled. Because today...I read "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" and my gut was right. It was magical.
"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie--magical, comforting, wise beyond her years--promised to protect him, no matter what."
For those of you that have read Neil Gaiman's work in the past, you already know he has a unique way of story telling. I'm not referring to his Gothic undertones (though they were slightly less under and more blatant tones this go round) or even his ability to incorporate childhood fables into the majority of his work. What I'm referring to is his narrative cadence.
Huh?
I want you to think back to the last book you read. (Go on...this will just take a second. Promise.) When you were reading that story, WHO was relaying it to you? Chances are you HEARD everything from the character themselves. Am I right? This is often the case, and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with it. I'll be the first to admit I love living vicariously through characters. But this is not the case in Gaiman novels. Instead they read as if someone on the "outside" is reading it TO you. Like grandpa dropped by for a bite, and then decided to stay for an extra hour and tell you a story. They do not "sound like" words on a page, they "sound like" memories.
He accomplishes this is by interrupting his own story.
"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is (for a lack of better terminology) a flashback. The entire novel revolves around the lead protagonists memories. Because of this (rather engaging choice in plot formats) he is able to tell the story AND converse with the reader at the same time.
For example:
"I was not scared of the dark, and I was perfectly willing to die (as willing as any seven-year-old, certain of his immortality, can be) if I died waiting for --"
But these are all semantics aren't they? Hiccups in the face of what really matters. They story itself.
And this is where things get complicated. I will NOT tell you about the plot itself; other than to say it was spectacular. I will NOT elaborate on the characters; other than to say they were beautifully developed. I will NOT convey to you my thoughts on the ending, because it is the glue that holds the entire novel together.
Instead I'll tell you that this book is both enlightening:
"Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences."
And frightening:
"Perhaps I ought to turn you inside out, so your heart and brains and flesh are all naked and exposed on the outside, and the skin-side's inside. Then I'll keep you wrapped up in my room here, with your eyes staring forever at the darkness inside yourself."
It's insightful:
"Nobody actually looks like they really are on the inside. You don't. I don't. People are much more complicated than that. It's true of everybody."
And realistic:
"I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible."
It told the truth:
"Books were safer than other people."
"I'm going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not on, in the whole wide world."
In short, it was everything it should be.
It's expensive, but spend the money. It's worth every penny.
Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl
Author: Neil Gaiman
Rating: 5 Stars
My Review
My first thought as I dove into this story was that I was excited to finally acquaint myself with Gaiman's work. It was wonderful getting to know someone so beloved directly through his words. I had no preconceived notions (beyond one broken-up viewing of Coraline, the movie).
And what did I think?
I loved "Ocean".
It was a fast and fun read and the story was never so convoluted that it felt like work following its thread. Gaiman said he wrote it intending to craft a short story and ending up with a novel instead. That seems accurate given that the arc of the story is rapid and fairly clean. It feels a lot like a great short story.
My second impression as the story unfolded was that of a familiar ripple...a sense of dark déjà vous. I was transported back to my days as a young woman swimming about in Latino literature, desperate to understand its unique magnetic pull on my heart. Today, someone would explain that tug to me as "magical realism", a dull term for a provocative style. Provocative to me at least. The aplomb with which post-colonial Latino authors wove fantasy into reality was as beautiful and foreign to me as the aurora. Adrift in the stream of their tales I often tried to grip the vision and force it to take form, only to have it slip away, dancing more at the edges of my mind (like a hunger bird) than at its center. It was some of the most challenging storytelling I'd ever encountered.
"Ocean" struck me as a beautiful bit of magical realism. I know that magical realism is not a genre, but in some ways I feel like it should be. To call Ocean simply "fantasy" overlooks all of the other elements that make it great...and for those seeking dragons and warlocks, it will be a miss. To call it "ya" overlooks the fact that it is, in fact, the story of an adult. I feel that magical realism is the most accurate description that I can give.
And in the tradition of the greats in this style (Allende, Marquez, Llosa, Oki), this story is dark. Though it is told mostly from the point of view of a young child and features fantastical things both good and evil, it's fairy-tale like elements are in the old-school style of ACTUAL danger and strife. Consider the difference between the original LITTLE MERMAID and the Disney version, for example. I love both, but when you get into magical realism, there's is always an opacity or complexity to the hybrid world. It makes me squint as if the entire thing were filmed in darkness, a la Pan's Labyrinth. There is no rescuing glitter or sparkle. Though there are "good" guys in whom you, like the narrator, place all your faith, you still sense that the evils are darker and stronger because they are INSIDE him
********Small Spoiler Alert - Some Details Included*******************
I love the way that this type of story allows you to feel the "lessons" often inherent in fairy-tales, but as in the style of an adept fairy-tale, the lessons are just part of the overall weave. For me, the critical moment for this character is when the hunger birds send the hallucination of his father and he finally says what he'd wanted to say in real life...that his father is abusive and his vitriol is damaging him. I also appreciated later how Gaiman reconciles this tension some through the lens of adulthood: the child understanding, finally, that he wasn't the son his father had really wanted or understood. Gaiman doesn't try to make it all better and tra-la-la, it's more of a factual assessment than a lead-up to teary reconciliations.
The primary villain, the "flea" Ursula (Why do Ursula's get such a bad rap?) is an excellent portrayal, shown through a child's eyes. It's important in this type of story that the villain be as she is, with the "monstrous" part of her nature being more human than otherworldly - her encouragement of adultery and child abuse, her focus on self and material or personal gratifications, her drawing joy from rendering others powerless. When you see her "other" nature behind the facade, it's suitably horrifying, but it also serves as the reminder that utterly human villains are the most frightening, in the end. What lies beneath, if you will...
And the importance of the "Ocean", in the end. It is the brass ring of human consciousness, in my opinion, and yet, as Lettie tells us, we cannot withstand it. Without giving a spoiler that ruins things, the "Ocean" represents that critical dichotomy between what we believe we want and what we actually want...or perhaps, can survive.
Sundry Additional Thoughts
I think Gaiman's handling of the seven-year-old protagonist is excellent. His fears, his feelings, his impressions, and his dialogue all ring true. He even captured the very literal nature of this age group.
The epigraph with Sendak is, of course, absolutely perfect, as Gaiman himself expressed in his acknowledgement. Sendak HAS to come to mind with this story, there's just no getting around it.
The storytelling is incredibly well done. Surprise, right? The foreshadowing and references are subtle enough that though the "reveal" doesn't come as a total surprise, you haven't been beat to death with it the moment it happens. That's nailing it, IMHO.
I also love the cover. It's perfect and haunting. I see the entire story through this lens.
Summary
I recommend this book very highly to anyone who enjoys a great story. It is suitable for any age, though you may want to read or discuss this with elementary-aged children as there are a couple scenes that could be scary for children the same age as the protagonist. It is fantastical and lovely. I'm very glad I stepped off my usual sci-fi and dystopian superhighway to read this excellent book.
Top reviews from other countries

A nice treat for everyone fond of book illustrations.
Here’s the breakdown of the edition:
The binding is the main culprit here, as it tends to be nowadays. Unfortunately, it is hybrid, which means the individual signatures have been sewn but glued to each other afterwards. The book doesn’t open flat and with a volume of this thickness that can be a bother.
The paper is matte, slightly creamy-coloured, and of decent thickness (only barely see-through when you’re turning the pages).
The font size is regular, with good line spacing and huge margins from the edges, making the text easily readable.
The book itself is a perfect size for reading, about an inch longer in height than A5 books. However, it is quite heavy due to the thickness.
The overall design deserves a moment in the spotlight. The publisher did a great job there, favouring the illustrator’s work for the cover design over some graphic horror attempt made from scratch. Many books completely ruin the illustrator’s style with an unmatching, uninspired, flat design on the covers. Here, we get Elise Hurst’s own illustration with a hint of colour (unlike the black and white illustrations inside the covers). Equal treatment was given to the illustrated endpapers, also printed in shades of blue. The cover paper has a woven-like texture, imitating the feel of fabric, which is another delightful perk for readers who are tactile.
The biggest appeal is how generously illustrated the novel is. You get to witness a real symbiosis between a writer and an artist as nearly every page has some illustration on it, often merging with the text. There are countless full-page illustrations and several of them across both pages. The artistic style is quite subtle with loose lines, not too literal, giving the reader’s imagination plenty of opportunity to run wild.
Who is this edition for then? Neil Gaiman’s numerous fans go without saying, but book illustration enthusiasts should have plenty to appreciate, too. Book collectors, on the other hand, might be disappointed due to the hybrid binding but unless this particular novel gets a Folio Society treatment, I’d say it’s still a mile ahead of a common glued paperback.
As for the price, I’d rather pay more if it meant the book was smyth-sewn and as a result opened flat and was more durable.
That being said, I certainly didn’t expect to be barraged by over a hundred of beautiful illustrations and, for that reason alone, the edition is worth getting over an ordinary paperback, as long as you don’t struggle with heftier volumes.
Reviewing the edition published by Headline in 2019, illustrated by Elise Hurst, ISBN: 978 1 4722 6023 9, priced £14.78 at the time.


Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 17, 2021
A nice treat for everyone fond of book illustrations.
Here’s the breakdown of the edition:
The binding is the main culprit here, as it tends to be nowadays. Unfortunately, it is hybrid, which means the individual signatures have been sewn but glued to each other afterwards. The book doesn’t open flat and with a volume of this thickness that can be a bother.
The paper is matte, slightly creamy-coloured, and of decent thickness (only barely see-through when you’re turning the pages).
The font size is regular, with good line spacing and huge margins from the edges, making the text easily readable.
The book itself is a perfect size for reading, about an inch longer in height than A5 books. However, it is quite heavy due to the thickness.
The overall design deserves a moment in the spotlight. The publisher did a great job there, favouring the illustrator’s work for the cover design over some graphic horror attempt made from scratch. Many books completely ruin the illustrator’s style with an unmatching, uninspired, flat design on the covers. Here, we get Elise Hurst’s own illustration with a hint of colour (unlike the black and white illustrations inside the covers). Equal treatment was given to the illustrated endpapers, also printed in shades of blue. The cover paper has a woven-like texture, imitating the feel of fabric, which is another delightful perk for readers who are tactile.
The biggest appeal is how generously illustrated the novel is. You get to witness a real symbiosis between a writer and an artist as nearly every page has some illustration on it, often merging with the text. There are countless full-page illustrations and several of them across both pages. The artistic style is quite subtle with loose lines, not too literal, giving the reader’s imagination plenty of opportunity to run wild.
Who is this edition for then? Neil Gaiman’s numerous fans go without saying, but book illustration enthusiasts should have plenty to appreciate, too. Book collectors, on the other hand, might be disappointed due to the hybrid binding but unless this particular novel gets a Folio Society treatment, I’d say it’s still a mile ahead of a common glued paperback.
As for the price, I’d rather pay more if it meant the book was smyth-sewn and as a result opened flat and was more durable.
That being said, I certainly didn’t expect to be barraged by over a hundred of beautiful illustrations and, for that reason alone, the edition is worth getting over an ordinary paperback, as long as you don’t struggle with heftier volumes.
Reviewing the edition published by Headline in 2019, illustrated by Elise Hurst, ISBN: 978 1 4722 6023 9, priced £14.78 at the time.












I loved the film Coraline and the TV series of American Gods, but The Ocean at the End of the Lane really didn’t thrill me. I enjoy some fantasy, have been a fan of horror since I was a young girl, and absolutely love magical realism, but for some reason this story didn’t get inside me. Don’t get me wrong, it is well written, and clearly loved by many, but it felt like it was lacking something I can't quite put my finger on.
Maybe it’s unfortunate this was the first book I read by this author. Perhaps I would love his other books, or it’s just best I stick to enjoying his film and TV adaptations instead. I was also expecting an adult book, but this felt much more young adult to me, so that might explain some of my disappointment.
There were a couple of quotes I liked:
“Books were safer than other people anyway.”
“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.”
Oh, and this book did have my mouth watering at the memory of Blackjacks, which were one of my favourite childhood sweets. Yum!
I have Neverwhere and Stardust on my to be read pile, so perhaps I’ll give one of them a go at some point. Who knows, maybe I’ll eventually get round to reading my husband’s old copy of Good Omens one day too.

It captures the feel of growing up in the country really well, with common places made special and otherworldly simply by their location and a young imagination.
In some ways the story feels really rather sad, a melancholic vein running through, perhaps made more ‘real’ by the fact that the story is told retrospectively by the main protagonist.
A character that would appeal to many who grew up reading books, lost in adventures in their heads, he tells us that he found it hard to make friends as when younger. He seemed happy enough living with his mother, father and sister until a sequence of events brings him into contact with the Hempstock family, the youngest of them, a daughter Hettie, a few years older than himself.
They live in a farm at ‘the end of the lane’ with a pond in the middle of the yard, although Hettie calls it an ocean, a fanciful bit of imagination.
But as with stories of this type there is a lot more going on than initially meets the eye, and the new friends embark on an adventure to stop something dark seeping into the world. It is a threat that gradually escalates until only a sacrifice will appease.
The book draws on archetypes, most importantly in the form of the Hempstock family. There is a power in the form of three women, often shown as three witches although Gaiman makes them so much more in this instance. It is something that the late Terry Pratchett used and can be traced back through literature over the ages, indeed Gaiman himself made use of the trope in has Sandman series.
The Crone (rather unkind), the Mother and the Maiden – a role fulfilled by the Hempstock family. They seem somewhat archaic, but also seem to know a lot more about the world than anyone else. They are also filled with mystery and a gentle cunning. Hettie gives her age as eleven, but it is then established that the important question is how long has she been eleven?
For what is really quite a small book it is hidden with depth, from the characters themselves (especially the Hempstocks), touching on themes of loss, of greed, of suicide, of the feeling that there is more to the world than we could possibly believe, of courage and the willingness to sacrifice the most potent of things for friendship and more. Of horror that can lurk in the most innocuous of places and of the bravery it takes to find it.
It is also very unsettling, having one of the most disturbing scenes I have read in a long time as a father tries to drown his son.
Perhaps it is the mark of desperation falling upon a man finding his world being diminished by financial difficulties, but there is nothing more disturbing or terrifying than finding that one of the two people in the world that should be there for a child no matter what, is a bigger threat than anything else in the world.
It is a book that is both terrifying and wonderful, delivering a conclusion that is fitting and yet downbeat. A genuine telling and a charming read.

The artwork on this copy was lovely.
I'm not going to tell you about the story. You can read the synopsis for yourself. What I will say is, if you've ever read Neil Gaiman before, you already know you adore his writing style. If you haven't read Gaiman before, this is as good as any place to start. Come down the rabbit hole with us :)
