The Independent on Sunday, UKThe Graveyard Book, By Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Reviewed by Nicholas Tucker
Thursday, 23 October 2008
It takes a graveyard rather than a village to raise a child in Neil Gaiman's latest novel. A toddler named Bod escapes from his parents' murderer by wandering into a cemetery. Swiftly taken into the care of kindly ghosts, he is allocated to a tomb inhabited by Mr and Mrs Owens, a respectable 18th-century couple who become his spirit parents. A neighbour, Caius Pompeius (died during the Roman occupation) is just one of the spectres keeping a friendly eye on him. The boy is in continual danger from the Jacks of all Trades, a sinister organisation from Ancient Egypt. Warned that an extraordinary youth will bring their order to an end, five evil men have correctly identified Bod as the most plausible candidate and are out to get him – so he must hide in the graveyard for all his young life.
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