The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel

Mark Haddon

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, May 18, 2004 - Fiction - 240 pages

A bestselling 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.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ekerstein - LibraryThing

This book is funny and poignant and a great example of how novels can teach empathy. We're put inside the head of someone with special needs and we see his process of interpreting the world. It's ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Charon07 - LibraryThing

Christopher is one of the most distinctive narrators I've read in a long time. This was a real exercise in perspective and an unusual take on the classic coming-of-age story.

Contents

• Section 1: 27
• Section 2: 76
• Section 3: 101
• Section 4: 102
• Section 5: 125
• Section 6: 131
• Section 7: 140
• Section 8: 147
• Section 9: 148
• Section 10: 184
• Section 11: 185
• Section 12: 189
• Section 13: 202
• Section 14: 204
• Section 15: 211
• Section 16: 217

About the author

Mark Haddon is the author of the bestselling novels The Red House and A Spot of Bother. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction and is the basis for the Tony Award–winning play. He is the author of a collection of poetry, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea, has written and illustrated numerous children’s books, and has won awards for both his radio dramas and his television screenplays. He teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation and lives in Oxford, England.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel; Vintage Contemporaries
• Author: Mark Haddon
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2004
• ISBN: 1400079071, 9781400079070
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Coming of Age; Fiction / Family Life / General; Fiction / Literary