Sussex, England: A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet sitting by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean), the unremembered past comes flooding back. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie - magical, comforting, wise beyond her years - promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. A stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Listening Length

6 hours and 22 minutes
Author

Neil Gaiman
Narrator

Neil Gaiman
Audible release date

June 18 2013
Language

English
Publisher

HarperAudio
ASIN

B072BS17SG
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 22 minutes
Author	Neil Gaiman
Narrator	Neil Gaiman
Audible.ca Release Date	June 18 2013
Publisher	HarperAudio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B072BS17SG
Best Sellers Rank	#3,536 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #53 in Coming of Age Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #104 in Classic Literature (Audible Books & Originals) #223 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

16,434 global ratings

5 star		65%
4 star		21%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Janet B

A MESMERIZING NOVEL!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 16, 2013

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I have never read any of Neil Gaiman's novels and I have to say this book is magical.

Our narrator is a 40 year old man, who returns to his childhood home in Sussex, England to attend a funeral. After the service, he speaks to the people he hasn't seen in decades and is asked about his wife, whom he no longer is with and his children, who are all grown up. He then takes his car and drives aimlessly and ends up on the street where he once lived. His house is now demolished and when he is 7 years old, his family had moved to a new home called the fairy rug. He continues to drive and ends up on a farm at the end of the lane. The farmhouse is where the Hempstock family lives. There is Lettie Hempstock, her mother and her grandmother. He had been best friends with Lettie, whom he has not thought about in years. At this same farm, a man had committed suicide in a stolen car. The past can be a frightening, strange and dangerous time for a 7 year old boy.

There are two central characters in this book. The first is the unnamed boy of seven and the second is his friend and protector, Lettie Hempstock, who says she is eleven years old and has been that age for a very long time. She tells him that she will protect him no matter what happens. The 7 year old boy lives with his parents and sister in a large home. He is a fearful, lonely and an unhappy little boy, who escapes by reading, running away to his laboratory, where he keeps his chemistry set. The laboratory is really a green-painted shed, far away as he could get from his home. He also knows a dozen ways of getting out of his parents' property and on to the lane that takes him to see his best and only friend, Lettie. They would go to the pond together, but Lettie always called it the ocean.

The little boy's parents are having financial problems and his mother has to go out and work. She finds a job as an optometrist and now has to find someone to look after the children. The parents hire a housekeeper by the name of Ursula Monkton in exchange for room and board. The young boy has to give up his bedroom and share a room with his sister. He is treated like an outcast in his family. No one seems to have time to find out what is troubling the young boy and he becomes even more fearful with the arrival of Ursula, "the monster and flea." Horrifying incidents continue to happen and the 7 year old feels powerless to stand up to the force of an adult. In order to deal with his fears and nightmares, he creates an imaginary world that includes Lettie, his protector, and her family etc.

This book deals with abuse, family problems, infidelity and one frightened little 7 year old boy. Could it be that the unnamed little boy is Neil Gaiman?

If you have never read a book by Neil Gaiman and this book is my first, just cozy up in your favourite chair and experience the beautiful, magical and creative writing of this author. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is only 178 pages, but you will be transported to a different world that you will not want to leave. I am certain of that.
Enjoy!

I am now a fan of this writer and look forward to reading his other books.
This book merits FIVE STARS.

5 people found this helpful

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Bob

Truly wonderful!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 25, 2022

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This, my first exposure to Neil Gaiman, had me immediately researching his other titles (a couple of which I've already added to my next order!) The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a remarkable tale that is gorgeously written; prose that captivates and moves the reader (in a multitude of ways). It is an exploration of childhood wonder and childhood angst and of how memories of those years playback to the older self. While the writing is superb, one's focus is clearly on the story and its telling which is at times intense and often scary, but beautiful in it entirety.
This a slim book (192 pages) but it is in my view a brilliant offering that deserves a place on any fantasy-lovers bookshelf.

One person found this helpful

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P. J. Clements

A nice read, but not what the publisher claims it to be.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 27, 2013

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So I know that Neil Gaiman fans will love this book. I am one and must admit that I really enjoyed it. Once you get into the story it sweeps you away and absorbs you into the warmth of Gaiman's descriptive storytelling. I will not go into the plot, that has been covered many times, but there are a couple of things that need to be said.
Firstly is this an adult novel? I don't think so. Now all Neil's books are worth the read. His books for young adults are delightful and I've read every one and The Ocean is one of those. There is no way that I could bring myself to accept that this is an adult novel.
Secondly is this a full length novel? Absolutely not. Weighing in at around 178 pages this is clearly a slightly extended short story. I feel the publisher has been deceitful in claiming this book to be what it is clearly not so they can charge a higher price for it. This is a good story, but it is no Neverwhere, Anansi Boys or American Gods and it leaves me disappointed. You will probably finish it in one sitting, and feel a little cheated.
Another point to mention is that my book arrived in a very poorly produced state. The pages were all different widths and rather than cut with a guillotine, look more like they were torn out. Poor quality paper too. I returned mine and the replacement I got was the same, so it is obviously a bad batch from the publisher. I tried to contact the publisher and Neil's people through Facebook to ask about this and to date they have not had the decency to respond. This is no way to treat people like me that rush out on the publishing date to secure every book he writes.
So the conclusion to this is that it rates 4 stars just because it is a good read. If I were to rate it on quality of the book, being a short story rather than a full length novel and being a young adult book rather than an adult novel, it would probably get only 2 stars.
I am one of the faithful, ever since Good Omens and am left disappointed.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

I expected a lot less

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 17, 2021

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This is not a review of the book's literary merit, just the quality of the particular edition.

A nice treat for everyone fond of book illustrations.

Here’s the breakdown of the edition:
The binding is the main culprit here, as it tends to be nowadays. Unfortunately, it is hybrid, which means the individual signatures have been sewn but glued to each other afterwards. The book doesn’t open flat and with a volume of this thickness that can be a bother.
The paper is matte, slightly creamy-coloured, and of decent thickness (only barely see-through when you’re turning the pages).
The font size is regular, with good line spacing and huge margins from the edges, making the text easily readable.
The book itself is a perfect size for reading, about an inch longer in height than A5 books. However, it is quite heavy due to the thickness.
The overall design deserves a moment in the spotlight. The publisher did a great job there, favouring the illustrator’s work for the cover design over some graphic horror attempt made from scratch. Many books completely ruin the illustrator’s style with an unmatching, uninspired, flat design on the covers. Here, we get Elise Hurst’s own illustration with a hint of colour (unlike the black and white illustrations inside the covers). Equal treatment was given to the illustrated endpapers, also printed in shades of blue. The cover paper has a woven-like texture, imitating the feel of fabric, which is another delightful perk for readers who are tactile.
The biggest appeal is how generously illustrated the novel is. You get to witness a real symbiosis between a writer and an artist as nearly every page has some illustration on it, often merging with the text. There are countless full-page illustrations and several of them across both pages. The artistic style is quite subtle with loose lines, not too literal, giving the reader’s imagination plenty of opportunity to run wild.
Who is this edition for then? Neil Gaiman’s numerous fans go without saying, but book illustration enthusiasts should have plenty to appreciate, too. Book collectors, on the other hand, might be disappointed due to the hybrid binding but unless this particular novel gets a Folio Society treatment, I’d say it’s still a mile ahead of a common glued paperback.
As for the price, I’d rather pay more if it meant the book was smyth-sewn and as a result opened flat and was more durable.

That being said, I certainly didn’t expect to be barraged by over a hundred of beautiful illustrations and, for that reason alone, the edition is worth getting over an ordinary paperback, as long as you don’t struggle with heftier volumes.

Reviewing the edition published by Headline in 2019, illustrated by Elise Hurst, ISBN: 978 1 4722 6023 9, priced £14.78 at the time.

12 people found this helpful

P. Mortimer

My husband has been trying to get me to read Good Omens for about twenty years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 31, 2018

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I bought this three years ago, and can finally now say I’ve read a Neil Gaiman book. My husband has been trying to get me to read Good Omens for about twenty years, and in fact, he read this book shortly after I bought it. However, despite liking Neil Gaiman, he said he found this extremely boring, so I was very much hoping my experience was a more positive one. I can say, I didn’t find it that bad, but I definitely didn’t fall in love with it.

I loved the film Coraline and the TV series of American Gods, but The Ocean at the End of the Lane really didn’t thrill me. I enjoy some fantasy, have been a fan of horror since I was a young girl, and absolutely love magical realism, but for some reason this story didn’t get inside me. Don’t get me wrong, it is well written, and clearly loved by many, but it felt like it was lacking something I can't quite put my finger on.

Maybe it’s unfortunate this was the first book I read by this author. Perhaps I would love his other books, or it’s just best I stick to enjoying his film and TV adaptations instead. I was also expecting an adult book, but this felt much more young adult to me, so that might explain some of my disappointment.

There were a couple of quotes I liked:

“Books were safer than other people anyway.”

“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.”

Oh, and this book did have my mouth watering at the memory of Blackjacks, which were one of my favourite childhood sweets. Yum!

I have Neverwhere and Stardust on my to be read pile, so perhaps I’ll give one of them a go at some point. Who knows, maybe I’ll eventually get round to reading my husband’s old copy of Good Omens one day too.

22 people found this helpful

Tim

that is easy to read but touches on deeper themes in a ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 24, 2015

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The Ocean at the end of the Lane, is a straightforward book, that is easy to read but touches on deeper themes in a manner that an author like Neil Gaiman would attempt.
It captures the feel of growing up in the country really well, with common places made special and otherworldly simply by their location and a young imagination.
In some ways the story feels really rather sad, a melancholic vein running through, perhaps made more ‘real’ by the fact that the story is told retrospectively by the main protagonist.
A character that would appeal to many who grew up reading books, lost in adventures in their heads, he tells us that he found it hard to make friends as when younger. He seemed happy enough living with his mother, father and sister until a sequence of events brings him into contact with the Hempstock family, the youngest of them, a daughter Hettie, a few years older than himself.
They live in a farm at ‘the end of the lane’ with a pond in the middle of the yard, although Hettie calls it an ocean, a fanciful bit of imagination.
But as with stories of this type there is a lot more going on than initially meets the eye, and the new friends embark on an adventure to stop something dark seeping into the world. It is a threat that gradually escalates until only a sacrifice will appease.
The book draws on archetypes, most importantly in the form of the Hempstock family. There is a power in the form of three women, often shown as three witches although Gaiman makes them so much more in this instance. It is something that the late Terry Pratchett used and can be traced back through literature over the ages, indeed Gaiman himself made use of the trope in has Sandman series.
The Crone (rather unkind), the Mother and the Maiden – a role fulfilled by the Hempstock family. They seem somewhat archaic, but also seem to know a lot more about the world than anyone else. They are also filled with mystery and a gentle cunning. Hettie gives her age as eleven, but it is then established that the important question is how long has she been eleven?
For what is really quite a small book it is hidden with depth, from the characters themselves (especially the Hempstocks), touching on themes of loss, of greed, of suicide, of the feeling that there is more to the world than we could possibly believe, of courage and the willingness to sacrifice the most potent of things for friendship and more. Of horror that can lurk in the most innocuous of places and of the bravery it takes to find it.
It is also very unsettling, having one of the most disturbing scenes I have read in a long time as a father tries to drown his son.
Perhaps it is the mark of desperation falling upon a man finding his world being diminished by financial difficulties, but there is nothing more disturbing or terrifying than finding that one of the two people in the world that should be there for a child no matter what, is a bigger threat than anything else in the world.
It is a book that is both terrifying and wonderful, delivering a conclusion that is fitting and yet downbeat. A genuine telling and a charming read.

35 people found this helpful

Sleipnir

Like a Stephen King story for younger readers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 3, 2020

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I recently completed Neil Gaiman's course of lessons on MasterClass.com and decided it was the perfect time to read more of his work. The narrator of this book is a seven-year-old boy who has a rather unusual experience after his family's lodger commits suicide in their car. The people who live on the farm at the end of the lane provide him with some comfort in the immediate aftermath of what he saw, before the youngest of them, Lettie, exposes him to a world of mystery and fear that he never knew existed. What unfolds is akin to a Stephen King story for younger readers.

6 people found this helpful

Rebecca Carter

A beautifully written fable for adults

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 15, 2016

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I loved this book. Although only my second Neil Gaiman book he's definitely becoming one of my favourite authors. I just love his style of writing, the way it makes you feel and his ability to transport you to other times and places. His genre is unlike most other authors; it's his own. A mix of fantasy, paranormal, magical realism, adventure, adult/dark fairy tales and a smidgeon of subtle horror (minus lots of gore) blended with witty dialogue.

This book has a dreamlike quality to it, you are never quite sure what is real and what isn't. He manages to perfectly capture the essence of what it's like to be a child; the adventures, the insecurity, the not knowing, the hopelessness, the magic. The shadows on walls morphing into monsters in our minds, the dark of nighttime playing tricks on us - something we can all relate to and remember.
The writing is just beautiful, he manages to conjure up such vivid imagery with his creativity. The story is pretty short but quite sweet and simple. A middle aged man returns to his childhood home and is hit by memories of when he was 7 and his friendship with 11 year old (or infinitely old) Lettie, and what events were triggered after a man was found dead in the lane. You really need to read it to discover the magic for yourself, without knowing any details or where the story is taking you.

Apart from a few scenes this book could quite easily have been a kids book, well maybe an older child's book. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it could almost be a very dark and slightly more grown up Roald Dahl kind of book. Maybe because it's told mainly from a 7 year olds perspective, but i can imagine it would have both terrified and fascinated me as a child. As it is it makes a fantastic dark kind of fairy tale/bed time reading book for adults. The only problem is being able to put it down at a reasonable hour to attempt enough hours sleep before work!

15 people found this helpful

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