The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel

by Neil Gaiman

  I would very much like to thank the committee for the Zena Sutherland Lectures, held at the Chicago Public Library: the Zena Sutherland Lecture I delivered in 2012 was, in retrospect, mostly a conversation with myself about this book while I was writing it, to try and understand what I was writing and who it was for.

  Merrilee Heifetz has been my literary agent for twenty-five years now. Her support on this book, as with everything over the last quarter of a century, was invaluable. Jon Levin, my agent for films and such, is a fine reader and does a mean Ringo Starr impression.

  The good folk of Twitter were extremely helpful when I needed to double-check how much blackjacks and fruit salad sweets cost in the 1960s. Without them I might have written my book twice as fast.

  And lastly, my thanks to the Hempstock family, who, in one form or another, have always been there when I needed them.

  Neil Gaiman,

  Isle of Skye,

  July 2012

  About the Author

  NEIL GAIMAN is the author of more than twenty books, and is the recipient of numerous literary honors. Born and raised in England, he now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and dreams of endless libraries.

  www.NeilGaiman.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Also by Neil Gaiman

  For Adults

  Fragile Things

  Anansi Boys

  American Gods

  Stardust

  Smoke and Mirrors

  Neverwhere

  Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett)

  For All Ages

  The Graveyard Book (illustrated by Dave McKean)

  M Is for Magic

  Coraline (illustrated by Dave McKean)

  Odd and the Frost Giants (illustrated by Brett Helquist)

  Crazy Hair (illustrated by Dave McKean)

  Blueberry Girl (illustrated by Charles Vess)

  The Dangerous Alphabet (illustrated by Gris Grimly)

  The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (illustrated by Dave McKean)

  The Wolves in the Walls (illustrated by Dave McKean)

  Copyright

  Grateful acknowledgment is given to Art Spiegelman for permission to use a word balloon from his collaborative conversation with Maurice Sendak in The New Yorker, copyright © by Art Spiegelman. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE. Copyright © 2013 by Neil Gaiman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition June 2013 ISBN: 9780062255679

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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