The Ocean At The End Of The Lane-Neil Gaiman

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Neil Gaiman

Morrow, Jun 3 2014, $14.99

ISBN: 9780062255662

 

Obsessed, he heads back to the house in rustic Sussex that he has not seen since his parents sold it three decades ago.  The artist thinks back to when his family moved into their new home at five year old and left seven years later. 

 

When he was a loner at seven, the child met tweener Lettie Hempstock the Daughter, the Mother and the Grandmother who lived near the pond that turned out to be The Ocean At The End Of The Lane.  A suicide enabled evil to take residence in their home in the form of the housekeeper.  She easily charmed his mother and siblings, and seduced his father; only he was immune because he believed whom his only friend was and her family still is.  In the present he meets Mother and Grandmother, but he blames himself that the Daughter apparently remains lost.

 

This is a super fantasy that grips readers from the moment the nameless protagonist returns to the site of his greatest triumph and loss.  Character driven, readers will relish the tale of the artist remembering when he as the child and the Daughter fought the malevolence.

 

Harriet Klausner