The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
★ Top 25 book of 2013 · #13 on Best Books of 2013
A man returning for a funeral recalls his seventh year, when a girl named Lettie Hempstock promised to protect him from a frightening darkness. It is a haunting fable about memory, stories and the dangers hiding nearby.
Best for: Adults who enjoy dark, dreamlike fables about childhood and memory
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is #13 on BookWard's Best Books of 2013, out of 45 2013 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Ocean at the End of the Lane is about
A man goes back to his hometown for a funeral and finds himself drawn to the lane near his childhood home. There he remembers Lettie Hempstock, a girl who lived with her mother and grandmother on a farm at the end of the road, and who insisted that the pond behind her house was an ocean.
The memories take him back forty years, to when he was seven and something from outside the ordinary world slipped into his life. A woman named Ursula Monkton arrives to look after him and his sister, and he dislikes her at once. Lettie promises to protect him, whatever happens.
Neil Gaiman writes a dreamlike, haunting story about childhood, memory and the gap between how children and adults see the world. It suits readers who like their fantasy quiet, strange and lyrical.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane on the Best Books of 2013
The Ocean at the End of the Lane came out in 2013. Of the 45 books first published in 2013 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #13 on our Best Books of 2013 list.
Why it made the list: 634 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (122 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2013 list
- Doctor Sleep Stephen King, #11
- Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan, #12
- Bully Penelope Douglas, #14
- Inferno Dan Brown, #15
See all Best Books of 2013 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2012 Best Books of 2014.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 437 want to read it, 16 are reading it now and 180 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4 out of 5 from 122 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 82 | 55% |
| Reader love | 53 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 56 | 20% |
Questions about The Ocean at the End of the Lane
When was The Ocean at the End of the Lane published?
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman was first published in 2013.
Was The Ocean at the End of the Lane one of the best books of 2013?
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is #13 on BookWard's Best Books of 2013, out of 45 2013 books that cleared our data bar. 634 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (122 ratings).
Why is The Ocean at the End of the Lane on the Best Books of 2013 list?
634 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (122 ratings).
More of the best books of 2013
- House of Hades Rick Riordan, #1
- Hard Luck Jeff Kinney, #2
- Crown of Midnight Sarah J. Maas, #3
- The Screaming Staircase Jonathan Stroud, #4
- Unravel Me Tahereh Mafi, #5
- The Goldfinch Donna Tartt, #6
See the full Best Books of 2013, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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