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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)

by Mark Haddon

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
44,104132638 (3.88)1197
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Recently added byRini55, private library, smhharp, RedRiter, DCPlibrarian, judico51, JFB87, henrikcg, rosverel, rkosarko
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    tortoise: Both are well-written novels with a first-person autistic-spectrum narrator. The Curious Incident has a better-constructed plot (the villain in The Speed of Dark is a bit cartoonish), but The Speed of Dark is I think more interesting as a commentary on autism.… (more)
    MyriadBooks: Undeservedly overshadowed by the concurrent publication of The Curious Incident, I found The Speed of Dark superior in every respect.
    Lucy_Skywalker: Speed of Dark is indeed superior in every respect: plot, characters, writing style, and the author has a better understanding of autistic people being the mother of one of them.
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    Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant: A Memoir by Daniel Tammet (_Zoe_)
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    JeaniusOak: Both equally readable by adults and teens alike
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(see all 58 recommendations)

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» See also 1197 mentions

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Showing 1-5 of 1252 (next | show all)
The book opens with an exciting balance between the world of a child on spectrum and the magic of his imagination. We are then led through a grim world in which the adults around him are struggling to support him and are loaded down with their own problems. The main character goes on an adventure and somehow comes out of it with more content balance.

Given the style of the text and how it replicates a constant internal dialogue going through “what it might be like to be autistic”, it is amazing that the author also manages to keep his reader engaged. The presumption on this narrative voice is forgotten because of his poetry. ( )
  yates9 | Feb 28, 2024 |
I count this as one of the first "lit" books I ever read, mostly because I saw someone reading it and it sounded fascinating.

I should reread it sometime; I honestly don't remember that much about it. I know I really liked the math and the math references, and I know I found it a fascinating peek into someone else's mind. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
The narrative voice of the main character is fantastic! It really captures the mind of someone with autism, and the plot itself was clever and unexpected. ( )
  Jenniferforjoy | Jan 29, 2024 |
2003 bestseller about an autistic 15 yr old writing a book about the death of his neighbor?s dog. Somewhat hard to read.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
Amusing, well written, ( )
  Craftybilda | Jan 23, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 1252 (next | show all)
Mark Haddon specialises in innovative storylines in his work as an author, screenwriter and illustrator allied to his remarkable ability to demonstrate what it is to be autistic without sentimentality or exaggeration allied to a creative use of puzzles, facts and photographs in the text mark him out as a real talent drawing on a range of abilities.
 
As Christopher investigates Wellington's death, he makes some remarkably brave decisions and when he eventually faces his fears and moves beyond his immediate neighborhood, the magnitude of his challenge and the joy in his achievement are overwhelming. Haddon creates a fascinating main character and allows the reader to share in his world, experiencing his ups and downs and his trials and successes. In providing a vivid world in which the reader participates vicariously, Haddon fulfills the most important requirements of fiction, entertaining at the same time that he broadens the reader's perspective and allows him to gain knowledge. This fascinating book should attract legions of enthusiastic readers.
 
The imaginative leap of writing a novel -- the genre that began as an exercise in sentiment -- without overt emotion is a daring one, and Haddon pulls it off beautifully. Christopher's story is full of paradoxes: naive yet knowing, detached but poignant, often wryly funny despite his absolute humorlessness.
 
Haddon's book illuminates the way one mind works so precisely, so humanely, that it reads like both an acutely observed case study and an artful exploration of a different ''mystery'': the thoughts and feelings we share even with those very different from us.
 
Mark Haddon's stark, funny and original first novel, ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,'' is presented as a detective story. But it eschews most of the furnishings of high-literary enterprise as well as the conventions of genre, disorienting and reorienting the reader to devastating effect.
 

» Add other authors (12 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Mark Haddonprimary authorall editionscalculated
Cerar, VasjaTranslatormain authorsome editionsconfirmed
Boutavant, MarcCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cardenas, AlejandroCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Carella, MariaDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dean, SuzanneCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kaye, Michael IanCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marrs, TimHand Letteringsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pallemans, HarryTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tibber, BenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Woodman, JeffNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Dedication
This book is dedicated to Sos
With thanks to Kathryn Heyman, Clare Alexander, Kate Shaw and Dave Cohen
First words
It was 7 minutes after midnight.
Quotations
Wellington was a poodle. Not one of the small poodles that have hair styles but a big poodle.
I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.
All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are.
Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.
I think people believe in heaven because they don’t like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don’t like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.
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Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

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