Fairy Tale

Stephen King

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781668052679
• eBook ISBN: 9781668002186

Master storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this #1 New York Times bestselling and spellbinding novel about a young man who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Chapter One: The Goddam Bridge. The Miracle. The Howling.
• Chapter Two: Mr. Bowditch. Radar. Night in the Psycho House.
• Chapter Three: A Hospital Visit. Quitters Never Win. The Shed.
• Chapter Four: Visiting Mr. Bowditch. Andy Chen. The Cellar. In Other News. A Hospital Meeting.
• Chapter Five: Shopping. My Father’s Pipe. A Call from Mr. Bowditch. The Flour Cannister.
• Chapter Six: Hospital Visit. The Safe. Stantonville. Gold-Greed. Mr. Bowditch Comes Home.
• Chapter Seven: First Night. Now You Know Jack. A Simple Woodcutter. Therapy. My Father’s Visit. Lynparza. Mr. Bowditch Makes a Promise.
• Chapter Eight: Water Under the Bridge. The Fascination of Gold. An Old Dog. Newspaper News. An Arrest.
• Chapter Nine: The Thing in the Shed. A Dangerous Place. 911. The Wallet. A Good Conversation.
• Chapter Ten: Wreckage. Mrs. Richland. Obit Thieves. The Tale of the Tape. Inside the Shed. The Tale of the Tape, Continued.
• Chapter Eleven: That Night. School Daze. Dad Leaves. The Well of the Worlds. The Other. The Old Woman. A Nasty Surprise.
• Chapter Twelve: Christopher Polley. Spilled Gold. Not So Nice. Preparations.
• Chapter Thirteen: Calling Andy. Radar Decides. Stew. Googir.
• Chapter Fourteen: Leah and Falada. Help Her. A Meeting on the Road. Wolfies. Two Moons.
• Chapter Fifteen: Leaving Dora. Refugees. Peterkin. Woody.
• Chapter Sixteen: Kingdom Road. Claudia. Instructions. The Noisemaker. The Monarchs.
• Chapter Seventeen: Leaving Claudia. Remembering Jenny. A Night in the Storage Shed. The Gate. The Haunted City.
• Chapter Eighteen: Hana. Pinwheel Paths. The Horror in the Pool. The Sundial at Last. An Unwelcome Encounter.
• Chapter Nineteen: The Trouble with Dogs. The Pedestal. The Graveyard. The Outer Gate.
• Chapter Twenty: Durance Vile. Hamey. Feeding Time. The Lord High. Interrogation.
• Chapter Twenty-One: The Belts. Innamin. Not a Spotch of Gray. Dungeon Days.
• Chapter Twenty-Two: The Playing Field. Ammit. Washing Up. Cake. The Gas-Jets.
• Chapter Twenty-Three: ‘Tempus est Umbra in Mente’. Hazy History. Cla. A Note. Seedings.
• Chapter Twenty-Four: First Round. The Last Set. My Prince. “What Do ‘You’ Think?”
• Chapter Twenty-Five: A Banquet. I Receive a Visitor. Inspiration Doesn’t Knock. “Who Wants to Live Forever?”
• Chapter Twenty-Six: The Tunnel and the Station. Scratching. The Trolley House. Red Molly. The Welcoming Party. A Mother’s Grief.
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Conference. The Snab. No Disney Prince. Prince and Princess. The Pact.
• Chapter Twenty-Eight: Into the City. The Sound of Mourning. Hana. She Who Once Sang. Gold. The Kitchen. The Receiving Chamber. We Must Go Up to Go Down.
• Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Lift. The Spiral Staircase. Jeff. The Lord High. “The Queen of Empis Will Do Her Duty.”
• Chapter Thirty: One More Stop. The Dungeon. Resolute. Impossible Stars. The Dark Well. Gogmagog. The Bite.
• Chapter Thirty-One: Visitors. The Queen in White. Mercy. Woody and Claudia. Leaving Empis.
• Chapter Thirty-Two: Here’s Your Happy Ending.
• Epilogue: Questions Asked and Answered (Some, at Least). A Final Trip to Empis.
• Acknowledgments
• ‘Never Flinch’ Teaser
• About the Author
• Copyright