The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The main character in this book is Christopher Boone, an autistic boy of 15 years old. He cannot stand to be touched, he doesn't talk to strangers and he has a horror of the colors yellow and brown. Those are just a few exemples of his behavioral problems. He's also a math genius, the chapters in the book are called to the prime numbers. The whole book he's practising for his maths A level, finally he got a grade therefore.
Christopher lives with his father in Swindon. He has also a rat, Toby. His mother died 2 years ago.

Christopher lives in his own world but when Wellington, the neighbour's dog, is killed with a garden fork, his life is a bit disturbed. Christopher wants to investigate this case like his favorite detective Sherlock Holmes. He questions all the people in the neighbourhood and he discovers that Eileen Shears, the neighbour, is divorced from her husband Roger Shears. So mister Shears becomes his prime suspect. Christopher's father, Ed Boone, cannot stand that Christopher investigates this case and that he's writing a book about it. So Ed takes off the book from Christopher. When Christopher is alone at home he looks for the book but he discovers something strangs. He finds 43 letters of his mother, adressed to him. That means that his mother was alive all the time. Ed admits his lies finally and he adds that he also killed Wellington. He had a secret relationship with Eileen but Wellington meant more to her then he did so he was a bit jealous. Ed tells also that Christopher's mother lives in London with Roger Shears. After he heard this story, Christopher doesn't feel safe any more because he thinks that his father is going to kill him too. So he decides, without Ed knows it, to go to his mother in London. After a long trip ans some problems with the police, he reaches his mother Judy. But Ed isn't very pleased when he discovers this. He wants to fight for Christopher but also Judy wants to raise him. Judy finishes her relationship with Roger and returns to Swindon, when she hires a room. Ed regrets what he has done and he buys, after Toby died, a little dog for Christopher. At the end of the story it isn't clear where Christopher is going to live.

Background information

The author of the book is Mark Haddon. He's an Englishmen and he was a draughtsman of kinderbooks in the past. Also in this book are a lot of pictures. Haddon describes in this book perfectly the life of an autistic boy and psychologists gave a lot of positive reactions. In the beginnig of the book are written some comments of other authors and journalists who praises him a lot. I'll give some exemples: he's a wise and funny writer; I've never read anything quite like Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, I advice you to buy it, . . . (Ian Mc Ewan and Arthur Golden). Haddon wons with this book the famous Booker Price and also the Whitbread Award, both are prices with a lot of prestige, so that's al ready an indication.
I'll give some more information about the Asperger Syndrome. Asperger Syndrome or is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who in 1944 published a paper which described a pattern of behaviors in several young boys who had normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and very often the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space. Often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see.