The Graveyard Book

#239
Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2008
318 pages

A very pleasing tale built on the premise that it takes a graveyard to raise a child. A baby's family is murdered and only he escapes. Named "Nobody Owens" by the denizens of the graveyard into which he toddles, he is brought up by, and learns from, ghosts and other creatures. Though the plot initially appears picaresque, a sort of "Nobody's Adventures with Dead People and Things," the key elements ultimately are brought together well. Gaiman's usual cleverness with words and ideas is quite evident, and the story is more moving than a summary would suggest. This is a denser and better-constructed story than Coraline; more importantly, it's the first Gaiman I've read where female characters are as sympathetic as the males.

As he has done before, Gaiman also gives the book away. See him read it chapter by chapter here.

The illustration spanning pages 292-293 in the hardback edition sums up the book nicely (and would make a fine tattoo). After this dose of Nobody Owens, I'm off to read more about Octavian Nothing.