The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a 2003 novel written by the British author Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year, and the Commonwealth Writers’’ Prize for best first book. Christopher, fifteen-year-old boy with behavioral problems, lives with his father in Swindon, England. His mother has been dead for over 2 years. He discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbor’s dog, speared by a garden fork, and Christopher decides to write a mystery murder novel about the dog. One day his father found the book and hide it from him, and when Christopher goes for a search he finds a bunch of letters directed to him from his mother. With the letters he realizes that his mom is not dead and she had left them. His dad confesses that he was the one who had killed the dog, and because of that Christopher left his house with the fear of being killed by his dad, he goes to London to find his mother. After reunited with his mother they return to Swindon, where he takes his A-level exam and get an A grade. The book ends with Christopher optimistic about his future, having solved the mystery of the murdered dog, gone to London on his own, found his mother, written a book, and achieved an A in his A-level math’s exam. The book takes part in England; only two different cities were visited, London and Swindon. The book starts in Swindon, where Christopher lives with his father, the same places were he finds the dead dog and stars his murder mystery novel. When Christopher finds out that her mother was living in London and that she was not dead he was very confused: “Mother had never lived in London” (98) that was when he just read the first letter and did not knew what to think. That is why he goes to London. The time of the book is in the end of the 20th century and we are able to know because of the dates inside the letters. However in my opinion the setting is not very important in this book.