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The Graveyard Book

A Novel
Pages
293
Published
2008
Language
English

Synopsis

After his family is murdered one night, a toddler wanders out of his home and up the hill into an old graveyard, where the resident ghosts take him in and grant him the Freedom of the Graveyard. Named Nobody Owens — Bod for short — he is raised by a loving pair of ghostly parents and watched over by Silas, a mysterious guardian who is neither living nor dead and who can pass beyond the graveyard's walls to bring the boy food and knowledge.

Growing up among the dead, Bod learns their uncanny skills — to Fade, to Dreamwalk, to slip through the boundary between worlds — while longing for the world of the living. But the man who killed his family is still out there, patiently searching for the child who got away, and the graveyard cannot shelter Bod forever.

Neil Gaiman's Newbery- and Carnegie-winning The Graveyard Book is a spellbinding, gently macabre coming-of-age fantasy — a graveyard reimagining of The Jungle Book, full of wonder, danger, and heart.

About the author

N
Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman (born 10 November 1960 in Portchester, Hampshire) is an English writer of novels, short fiction, comics, screenplays and audio drama. He worked as a journalist before moving into comics, where his DC series The Sandman, begun in 1989, recast the title character as Morpheus, lord of dreams, and became one of the most acclaimed comics of its era. His novels include Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett, as well as Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline and The Oc...

Characters

Nobody "Bod" OwensProtagonist

A boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered.

All characters in The Graveyard Book

Frequently asked questions

  • What inspired the story of The Graveyard Book?

    The author drew inspiration from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, intentionally mirroring its structure of an orphaned boy raised by a non-human surrogate family. The concept also originated from watching his own young son play in a graveyard while riding a tricycle.

  • Did this book win any major literary awards?

    It is the first work to win both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal. It also received the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

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