Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
About the Story
But Chris doesn't have any clue what he is about to set in motion by digging deeper into the dog's death. It doesn't take long for him to start finding important clues that have much more to do with his personal life than he could have imagined. He discovers a box full of letters from his supposedly dead mother and starts doubting everything his father has ever told him. The only thing giving him a sense of safety in those confusing times is the knowledge that he will be allowed to do the mathematics A-level, a test he would need for university, sometime in the near future.
For Chris, the final straw is his father's confession of being Wellington's murderer. Chris gets really scared which prompts him to go looking for Judy, his mother.
The journey to London is a pretty big challenge for a child with Asperger's sindrome and Chris faces many fears along the way, but in the end, he succeeds. He finds his mother's address and discovers that she is now living with their former neighbour. The relationship isn't working very well, though, and Chris's presence even complicates things further, so his mother decides to move back to Swindon which gives Chris the opportunity to take his mathematics A-level after all, even though he'd already thought that chance lost.
Chris's father apologizes to him several times but the boy isn't sure he would ever be able to trust him again. He has the idea in his head that if the man killed a dog then surely there was nothing standing in his way of killing Chris too. But his father is a patient person. He declares himself ready to go through the slow and painful process of regaining Chris's trust and as a token of his determination gives Chris a golden retriever. The path to getting things back to the way they were would probably be long and hard but Chris agrees to give it a try.
Chris
Chris's Father
Mrs. Shears
Siobhan
Chris's Mother
A Few Quotes
About the Author
Haddon's first children's book was called Gilbert's Gobstopper. It was only the first of many. He then wrote screenplays but didn't like the job too much, mostly because he didn't have as much artistic freedom as he desired and he was often asked to rewrite his work.
His most famous book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was first written as an adult novel but has been equally successful with adults and children. The author's second adult novel is called A Spot of Bother.
He has won many awards for children's books aa well as adult novels. His short story The Pier Falls is nominated for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.