‘It is going to take more than just a couple of good-hearted souls to raise this child. It will,’ said Silas ‘take a graveyard’.

This is the first Neil Gaiman book I’ve read, although Malcolm has read a few and I loved the film of Stardust. Those of you who know his work well will gasp in horror at that, but I have to confess that fantasy has never really been my thing and with it being segregated from mainstream fiction in the distant reaches of bookshops (virtually labelled ‘here be dragons’), I’ve never found myself browsing it. I only really heard of Neil Gaiman when he was among the people enthusiastically recommending Victoria Walker’s children’s fantasy novels as candidates for our publishing programme. I thanked him for plugging our edition and for his support and still, not really knowing how successful he was, offered to buy him dinner if he ever found himself in Edinburgh – always willing to encourage poverty-stricken authors, that’s me! I did cringe slightly when I found how just how many books he sells…

However, when the Bloomsbury rep dropped off a proof copy of The Graveyard Book (due out at the end of October), I was eager to read it, having already read so much about it on his blog, but, not being a fan of fantasy, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect.  What I found was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time – certainly the best I’ve read this year.

It is the story of Nobody Owens who grows up in a graveyard after his parents and sister are brutally murdered by ‘the man Jack’ who still pursues him. Escaping death by chance, the toddler ends up at the graveyard on the hill where the spirit of his deceased mother pleads with the ghosts who live there to keep him safe. Taken in by Mr and Mrs Owens who died some two centuries earlier, Nobody is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, looked after by his new family of ghosts and spirits and protected by the mysterious Silas who alone can leave the graveyard and who obviously knows much more than he’s letting on about why Bod is being hunted by the mysterious Jack.

The early part of the book feels a little like a collection of short stories but that’s not a failing; rather it allows Gaiman to establish characters and plot without the need for long and detailed descriptions.  Each chapter takes place around two years after the previous one.  The way that he introduces characters is especially good – he sketches enough detail to be satisfying but leaves some elements for the reader’s imagination.  For example, we are never told exactly what sort of being Silas is; we know he’s not human, but was he once and what is he now?  And as for Miss Lupecsu - the evidence suggests that she is a werewolf (or is she?) but it’s never laboured; we’re left to come to that conclusion by ourselves.  There are lovely and unexpected variations in pace rather than pages of narrative and big set pieces and moments of subtle humour and plays on words that avoid falling into pun territory.

I also loved the sheer joy that comes through in Gaiman’s writing; yes, the book is chilling and scary but there’s a real sense of the author flying along, loving the story he’s creating and bursting with the need to tell that story.  Here and there are hints that there could be a sequel and I do hope that there is.  This book deserves to become a classic of children’s fantasy writing, up there with likes of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper and I’m sure that it will.

In the meantime, as soon as the book is published in October, our customers should be forewarned that we are going to be recommending it to almost everyone.

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