The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman

Beautifully written, magical story of the darkness and light within us all. Helped me to better make sense of powerful childhood memories, the fear riding so many of us, and how it is possible to survive, bruised but still alive.

Extract
Curiously I turned in my seat and looked back: a single half-moon hung over the farmhouse, peaceful and pale and perfect.
I wondered where the illusion of the second moon had come from, but I only wondered for a moment, and then I dismissed it from my thoughts. Perhaps it was an after-image, I decided, or a ghost: something that had stirred in my mind for a moment, so powerfully that I believed it to be real, but now was gone, and faded into the past like a memory forgotten, or a shadow into the dusk.
Parallels
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  • Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll