The Ocean at the End of the Lane

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Neil Gaiman

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

The celebrated modern classic from the number one best-selling writer.

THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 'BOOK OF THE YEAR'

AN ACCLAIMED WEST END THEATRE PRODUCTION

This is what he remembers, as he sits by the ocean at the end of the lane:

A dead man on the back seat of the car and warm milk at the farmhouse.

An ancient little girl and an old woman who saw the moon being made.

A beautiful housekeeper with a monstrous smile.

And dark forces woken that were best left undisturbed.

They are memories hard to believe, waiting at the edges of things. The recollections of a man who thought he was lost but is now, perhaps, remembering a time when he was saved....

NEIL GAIMAN.

WITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES.

©2013 Neil Gaiman (P)2013 Headline Digital

Critic reviews

"Neil Gaiman's entire body of work is a feat of elegant sorcery. He writes with such assurance and originality that the reader has no choice but to surrender to a waking dream," (Armistead Maupin)

"Some books just swallow you up, heart and soul." (Joanne Harris)

"Summons both the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, and the complicated landscape of memory and forgetting." (Guardian)

Another brilliant story from Neil Gaiman

I am a big Gaiman fan and this book does not disappoint. I especially loved that the book is narrated by Neil Gaiman - it adds another dimension to the audio book! I definitely recommend this book

Dark and as deep as an Ocean

At the start of the book Neil warns that this book is dark. And it is. Dark like the secrets that families try to hide in the generations but that have a way of leaking out in the form of intergenerational trauma.

It’s also deep and hints at the secrets of the Universe told in poems, scriptures and fables.

But it could also just be a tale of a boy who was somewhere he shouldn’t have been and found himself in an adventure.

an ocean of tears.

This is a truly lovely tale. I adore Niel Gaiman's stories and absolutely love his reading, intonation and pacing of words.
The story unfolds beautifully and I really got to love the main characters and dispose the villain. the beginning of the epilogue brought forth completely unbidden tears.
I write this still sniffling. Darn you Niel.

Neil Gaiman does it again - beautiful and strange

Neil Gaiman writes beautifully, and reads this strange tale of childhood perfectly. I enjoy hearing authors read their own work, which gives it the meaning and inflection they intended, and brings it to life in the closest possible way to their imaginings.

This is a story about children, but it's not for children. This story is about childhood, about places and people, about memories and how, for children, a pond can be an ocean. It's dark, in places it's menacing, and even horrific, but that's Neil Gaiman's work in a nutshell - as you listen, it will make you smile, it will warm you with a sense of nostalgia, and it will made you shudder.

This is a story which will become a classic of the genre. It's strange and it's beautiful, at once a fantasy written with autobiographical voice, which adds to its wonder and its majesty. Well worth a listen.

Perfect dark childhood fantasy

Neil Gaiman is amazing. I loved the story, the beautiful descriptive language, everything. I only wish there was more of it!

Absolutely wonderful

Listen to this book! It is truly awesome and wonderful and frightening all at once. Neil Gaiman is a master and reads it well too.

Fantastic!

This is by far the best book I have listened to for a long time. Amazing storytelling and plenty of food for thought. Gaiman gets batter and better.

Why is Gaiman narrating his own book ?

I went back and forth on it several times. It started off annoying me, then I found it charming, then I found his tone too emotive.

I guess he was always overly emotive. When it was appropriate, I didn't mind it. When it wasn't I really did.

Story is pretty good. I loved the neighbours. Just wondrous.

Expecting "Whoa!", but got "Meh"

This is the first Neil Gaiman book I've listened to. In his words, though this story is short, it is very "dark". Whilst I agree it is dark-ish, it isn't what I was expecting. The seamless transition from our world to the "other world" is done very well. The Ursela character in her true form is also quite menacing. It reminds me of the abstract nature of some of Stephen King's good work.

The story is interesting enough, but the thing that really got on my nerves was Gaiman's narration. In every scene of the book, he speaks with an upward positive-sounding naive inflection. While this fits with the personality of the protagonist (an innocent 7-year-old boy), the dark tone of the story makes it completely out of place. Even in scenes that are supposed to be terrifying, the same tone of voice is there. It doesn't fit and it takes away from the story.

The other thing that I couldn't get over was that for a 7-year-old boy, the protagonist seems to be one of the world's great philosophers. He says and thinks things that no 7-year-old I've ever met has any understanding of. You can't even explain this by the character being an avid reader of books. The things he makes comments on would escape the understanding of someone that young. On top of this, there are times when Gaiman seems to remember that this is a young child and the character has a complete lack of understanding of a situation. Consistency is key, Neil. He's either a very smart worldly young boy, or a clueless child. You can't have it both ways.

A bit of a letdown, considering everyone praises this author.