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Title details for The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - Available

The Book of Lost Things

by John Connolly
Steven Crossley
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother he finds that the real world and the fantasy world have begun to meld. The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words: "Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king." With echoes of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, author John Connolly introduces us to a cast of not-quite-familiar characters. Like the seven socialist dwarfs who poison an uninvited (and unpleasant) princess and try to peg the crime on her stepmother. Or the Loups, the evil human-canine hybrids spawned long ago by the union of a wolf and a seductive girl in a red cloak. As war rages across Europe, David is violently propelled into a land that is both a construct of his imagination yet frighteningly real, a strange reflection of his own world composed of myths and stories, populated by wolves and worse-than-wolves, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a legendary book.The Book of Lost Things.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 10, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449898267
      • File size: 316631 KB
      • Duration: 10:59:38

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Steven Crossley's soothing, precise voice leads us gently into the life of young David, whose dying mother tells him that stories are alive. David remembers this after her death when his father remarries and they move into his stepmother's home. There the strange books in his room begin to murmur, and he's lured into a dark fairy tale world by his dead mother's voice. Crossley's characterizations provide the believability needed to convey us into this frightening fantasy. The Woodsman, whom David meets first, has a voice that's gruff and rough--but, like David, we trust him. Crossley's ferocious reading makes us fear the evil half-human half-wolf, Leroi Loup. We hope that David learns enough to escape the gruesome story he's somehow helped to create. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 28, 2006
      Thriller writer Connolly (Every Dead Thing
      ) turns from criminal fears to primal fears in this enchanting novel about a 12-year-old English boy, David, who is thrust into a realm where eternal stories and fairy tales assume an often gruesome reality. Books are the magic that speak to David, whose mother has died at the start of WWII after a long debilitating illness. His father remarries, and soon his stepmother is pregnant with yet another interloper who will threaten David's place in his father's life. When a portal to another world opens in time-honored fashion, David enters a land of beasts and monsters where he must undertake a quest if he is to earn his way back out. Connolly echoes many great fairy tales and legends (Little Red Riding Hood, Roland, Hansel and Gretel), but cleverly twists them to his own purposes. Despite horrific elements, this tale is never truly frightening, but is consistently entertaining as David learns lessons of bravery, loyalty and honor that all of us should learn.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 29, 2007
      Crossley provides a smooth, professional reading of this heartfelt story of loss and discovery. Connolly's fairy tale for adults chronicles the adventures of David, a 12-year-old boy growing up in WWII England. Still mourning the loss of his mother to cancer, David is desperately trying to adjust to life with a new stepmother, a new half-brother and a father who, because of the war, is never around. But everything changes when David stumbles through a magical gateway and into a realm of familiar, yet decidedly different, representations of classic fairy tales. Searching for a way home, he is pursued by the Crooked Man, an evil troll who must strip David of his innocence in order to retain his power over the kingdom. David learns lessons of bravery, loyalty, acceptance, sacrifice and, finally, the power of love and family. Crossley's narration is articulate and measured, bringing a respectful dignity to the author's prose. He takes the same care with the book's multitude of characters, whether it is David, the Crooked Man or a hilariously funny band of anti-capitalist dwarfs. A lovely tale, skillfully told. Simultaneous release with the Atria hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 28).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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