The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon

The book opens with the narrator, Christopher, finding his neighbour’s dog dead on the lawn.

This would be a most traumatic experience for anyone, but Christopher tells us he feels sad. He does not appear to be very disturbed by the fact that someone has obviously killed the dog with a garden fork, and that it leaks blood from the holes; the reader, therefore, becomes aware quite early on that Christopher is a bit different to other people.

He tells us he is 15 years 3 months and 2 days old and this book is his murder mystery and he will solve the crime himself.

He has an inability for recognise or understand other people’s expressions and is helped by his teacher, Siobhan, with the aid of pictograms, to try to make some sense of other people. Christopher finds great comfort in prime numbers, hates to be touched, dislikes being in crowds, and also dislikes the colours yellow and brown. He states quite clearly that he has “behavioural problems” and in fact lists them for the reader, without of course being able to tell us why he behaves this way. How can he? Be he has a love of maths and can make sense of the most complex problems. He is often, unintentionally, both funny and sad.

All of the above may sound like strange material for a novel, but in fact, because Christopher is the speaker in this novel, it is his voice we hear and enables the reader to gain some insight in the working of an autistic (Asperger’s Syndrome?) mind.

Christopher’s quest to solve his murder mystery, also set against a background of family tragedy is most moving. This is his book. It is funny, sad, and beautifully written. The writer has skilfully managed to give the reader some sense of what the autistic personality perceives about the world.

I would not want to reveal too much of the story here, but would urge you to read it for yourself. The general consensus of our reading group was that it is a beautiful, original, and unusual book.