The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

BookClub: 14 de desembre a les 19 h a la Biblioteca Mestra Maria Antònia.

(Extracte del punt de lectura.)

About the book
On the surface, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a story about a unique young man setting out to solve an unusual crime and record his progress in a novel. The young man is Christopher John Francis Boone, and he is unique because he is severely autistic. He is also a savant genius who knows the capital city of every country in the world, every prime number up to 7,057 and much more of equal importance, which he makes sure his readers know as well before the tale is finally told. Christopher has many delightful quirks of character, including a preference for prime over cardinal numbers. He numbers his chapters according to primes: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 etc., continuing through Chapter 233.
Christopher discovers the dead body of Wellington, his neighbour's dog, speared by a garden fork. Mrs Shears, Wellington's owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion. He decides to investigate the dog's death, despite his father's orders to stay out of other people's business. However, he is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in a book: a "murder mystery novel". During his investigation, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs Alexander, who informs Christopher of something he wouldn’t have imagined.

The author
Haddon was born in 1962 in Northampton and educated at Uppingham School and Merton College, Oxford, where he studied English.
In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a book which is written from the perspective of a boy with Asperger syndrome. Haddon's knowledge of Asperger syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, comes from his work with autistic people as a young man. In an interview, Haddon claimed that this was the first book that he wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences.
His second adult novel, A Spot of Bother, was published in September 2006.
He is also known for his children books, his work for TV, his illustrations and his artwork. He is a vegetarian and an atheist.

See his site.

Bibliography
Adult titles

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, 2003
• A Spot of Bother, 2006

Poetry

• The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea

Selection of youth titles

• Agent Z series
• Toni and the Tomato Soup
• The Sea of Tranquillity
• Ocean Star Express
• The Ice Bear’s Cave
• Gridzbi Spudvetch!
• Boom!
• At Home
• At Playground