The Book of Lost Things

A Novel

John Connolly

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN:
  9781416542759
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly's unique imagination takes readers through the end of innocence into adulthood and beyond in this dark and triumphantly creative novel of grief and loss, loyalty and love, and the redemptive power of stories.

High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own—populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Chapter I: Of All That Was Found and All That Was Lost
• Chapter II: Of Rose and Dr. Moberley, and the Importance of Details
• Chapter III: Of the New House, the New Child, and the New King
• Chapter IV: Of Jonathan Tulvey and Billy Golding, and Men Who Dwell by Railway Tracks
• Chapter V: Of Intruders and Transformations
• Chapter VI: Of the War, and the Way Between Worlds
• Chapter VII: Of the Woodsman and the Work of His Ax
• Chapter VIII: Of Wolves, and Worse-Than-Wolves
• Chapter IX: Of the Loups and How They Came into Being
• Chapter X: Of Tricksters and Trickery
• Chapter XI: Of the Children Lost in the Forest and What Befell Them
• Chapter XII: Of Bridges and Riddles, and the Many Unappealing Characteristics of Trolls
• Chapter XIII: Of Dwarfs and Their Sometimes Irascible Nature
• Chapter XIV: Of Snow White, Who Is Very Unpleasant Indeed
• Chapter XV: Of the Deer-Girl
• Chapter XVI: Of the Three Surgeons
• Chapter XVII: Of Centaurs and the Vanity of the Huntress
• Chapter XVIII: Of Roland
• Chapter XIX: Of Roland’s Tale and the Wolf Scout
• Chapter XX: Of the Village, and Roland’s Second Tale
• Chapter XXI: Of the Coming of the Beast
• Chapter XXII: Of the Crooked Man and the Sowing of Doubt
• Chapter XXIII: Of the March of the Wolves
• Chapter XXIV: Of the Fortress of Thorns
• Chapter XXV: Of the Enchantress and What Became of Raphael and Roland
• Chapter XXVI: Of Two Killings and Two Kings
• Chapter XXVII: Of the Castle, and the King’s Greeting
• Chapter XXVIII: Of the Book of Lost Things
• Chapter XXIX: Of the Crooked Man’s Hidden Kingdom and the Treasures That He Kept There
• Chapter XXX: Of the Crooked Man’s Act of Betrayal
• Chapter XXXI: Of the Battle, and the Fate of Those Who Would Be King
• Chapter XXXII: Of Rose
• Chapter XXXIII: Of All That Was Lost and All That Was Found
• A Conversation with John Connolly
• Of Fairy Tales, Dark Towers, and Other Such Matters
• Rumpelstiltskin
• The Water of Life
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Hansel and Gretel
• The Three Billy-Goats Gruff
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Goldilocks
• The Three Army-Surgeons
• The Goose-Girl
• Beauty and the Beast
• Sleeping Beauty
• Robert Browning and “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”
• Centaurs
• Harpies
• The Death of Manius
• About the Author
• Copyright