The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon
This novel is written from the point of a 15 year old boy with Asperser’s Syndrome, called Christopher Boone. Christopher is a genius when it comes to solving mathematical problems or science questions. But when it comes to communicating with people or understanding them, he utterly fails. He can’t stand being touched, he can hardly distinguish between a smiling face and a crying one, he’s not able to understand jokes and when he can’t handle the incoming information anymore, he crouches on the floor and groans. Thus his life is not a normal one; he attends a special school, has no friends, follows a strict timetable for every day, and lives alone with his father because his mother has died and so he spends a lot of time watching TV or playing video games.
But there are complications: At first, he gets into trouble with the police, because he (accidentally) hits a police officer, then his father tells him to keep his nose out of other people’s business. But he keeps going and goes about asking every neighbor about the dog. What he reveals is a lot more than just the murder of a dog. He gets to know Mrs. Alexander, who tells him unintentionally that, his mother, before her death, had an affair with Mr. Shears, the ex-husband of Mrs. Shears, the owner of the dog. When his father secretly reads Christopher’s book and finds out that he is still investigating, he loses his temper and the argument ends in a fight. Besides, he takes the book and hides it. A few days later, Christopher starts to look for the book, and what he finds is not just his book, but also a lot of letters from his mother, addressed to him and posted after her death. By reading them, he becomes aware of the fact that his mother never died but has just left him and his father to live with Mr. Shears in London and that his father has been lying to him for the last two years. When his father comes home, he meets a completely shocked boy... [continues]
By Mark Haddon
This novel is written from the point of a 15 year old boy with Asperser’s Syndrome, called Christopher Boone. Christopher is a genius when it comes to solving mathematical problems or science questions. But when it comes to communicating with people or understanding them, he utterly fails. He can’t stand being touched, he can hardly distinguish between a smiling face and a crying one, he’s not able to understand jokes and when he can’t handle the incoming information anymore, he crouches on the floor and groans. Thus his life is not a normal one; he attends a special school, has no friends, follows a strict timetable for every day, and lives alone with his father because his mother has died and so he spends a lot of time watching TV or playing video games.
But there are complications: At first, he gets into trouble with the police, because he (accidentally) hits a police officer, then his father tells him to keep his nose out of other people’s business. But he keeps going and goes about asking every neighbor about the dog. What he reveals is a lot more than just the murder of a dog. He gets to know Mrs. Alexander, who tells him unintentionally that, his mother, before her death, had an affair with Mr. Shears, the ex-husband of Mrs. Shears, the owner of the dog. When his father secretly reads Christopher’s book and finds out that he is still investigating, he loses his temper and the argument ends in a fight. Besides, he takes the book and hides it. A few days later, Christopher starts to look for the book, and what he finds is not just his book, but also a lot of letters from his mother, addressed to him and posted after her death. By reading them, he becomes aware of the fact that his mother never died but has just left him and his father to live with Mr. Shears in London and that his father has been lying to him for the last two years. When his father comes home, he meets a completely shocked boy... [continues]
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