?“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.” A serving of magical realism, a sprinkle of melancholy, a dash of foreboding atmosphere, and a helping of painful truths. That, more or less, is the recipe for Neil Gaiman’s 2013 hit novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Recipient of the Goodreads Choice Award alongside other accolades, Gaiman’s magical realism fantasy novel stands among his best work for good reason.

A return to a clouded past. The 200-page novel follows our unnamed narrator — once designated “the boy” and now a lost man navigating a midlife crisis — as he returns to his childhood home for a funeral. There, he begins facing the memories of his childhood that have for years been repressed, leading him to a farm house in which he vaguely remembers spending his childhood with a girl called Lettie Hempstock.

“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled.” As our narrator begins to recollect memories, the reader is transported back decades to the events of his childhood. We meet the peculiar Hempstock women, and quickly come to the realization that they may not be human after all — but rather magical beings who provide a home for our young narrator, whose family is going through hard times. Alongside Lettie, our narrator goes on quite the adventure that promises an unhappy ending. We’ll leave it at that to avoid spoiling the plot.

While this may be a fantasy, it is certainly not a children’s book. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is an exploration of what it means to live a troubled childhood, and the lengths children go to sever themselves from the pain. Yet, it is also a tale of love, bravery in the face of adversity, and why our memories are our most precious possessions as we grow old. Gaiman writes with authority, bluntness, and beauty. The prose transports the readers to a far off reality in which anything may be possible, keeping eyes engaged and fingers itching to turn the page. While the novel often veers towards the morose, it remains — in its own special, peculiar way — a wholesome, emotional read.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can get a paperback copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane from Bibliothek, or get the ebook on Amazon.

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