The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Signed Limited First Edition in Slipcase

Neil Gaiman

ISBN 10: 1472200314 / ISBN 13: 9781472200310

Published by HeadLine - exclusively for Goldsboro Books, London, 2013

About this Item

To quote a beautifully written review from 2023,' 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' knocked me off my feet. Gaiman weaves an astounding tale about how memories lost and found can shape our lives, about the power of childhood wonder, about monsters and magic, about darkness and hope.' This book is number 372 of an exclusive limited first edition of 700 and is signed directly to the title page by Neil Gaiman. It is slipcased and therefore has no jacket as issued. It is in superb unread condition and will be sent to the buyer carefully bubblewrapped in a professional book posting box. I send all my books to UK buyers using the Royal Mail Special Delivery service and to overseas buyers I use the Royal Mail International Tracked service.

Seller Inventory # 21034

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Signed Limited First Edition in Slipcase
• Publisher: HeadLine - exclusively for Goldsboro Books, London
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472200314
• ISBN 13: 9781472200310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

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.

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. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, June 2013: Neil Gaiman's intent was simple: to write a short story. What he ended up with instead was The Ocean at the of the Lane--his first adult novel since Anansi Boys came out in 2005, and a narrative so thoughtful and thrilling that it's as difficult to stop reading as it was for Gaiman to stop writing. Forty years ago, our narrator, who was then a seven-year-old boy, unwittingly discovered a neighboring family’s supernatural secret. What happens next is an imaginative romp through otherwordly adventure that could only come from Gaiman's magical mind. Childhood innocence is tested and transcended as we see what getting between ancient, mystic forces can cost, as well as what can be gained from the power of true friendship. The result is a captivating tale that is equal parts sweet, sad, and spooky. --Robin A. Rothman