Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 11:32 PM by Nikos Nakos
Title: The Graveyard Book
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Oxy
Year: 2008 (English) – 2011 (Greek)
Neil Gaiman needs no real introduction. He is known for his myth creating skills whether it is books (American Gods, Anansi Sons), comics (Sandman, Books of Magic, Hellblazer) or movies (Stardust, Beowulf). His skills on creating characters that manage to touch hidden aspects of every reader’s soul ranks him among the best modern writers.
The Graveyard Book is, in theory, a book for teenagers. Yet, despite that classification (Gaimanwon the Locus Award for “Best Young Adult Novel in 2009) it is a book with no age limits. Perhaps it happens because this book speaks to our inner teenager or because it manages to wake up that aspect that most of us sacrificed on the altar of maturity or put to sleep because that part of us was unable to bear our society’s demureness and apathy.
As Gaiman himself admitted the story is basically an adaptation of “The Jungle Book” (Rudyard Kipling) that narrates the life of NobodyOwens, a child that, during his infancy, manages to escape from his family’s murderer. Arriving at a cemetery he finds ghosts (and other, more special, creatures) that undertake his upbringing. It is the story of a child’s path to adulthood, full of invisible friends and of course, magic. But like every child’s life, even one as special as Nobody, it is also full of disappointment and in the end the time comes that magic ceases to exist and it becomes a bittersweet memory.
One could say that this book “speaks” to each one of us on a deeper level because we are all Nobody Owens. Is there any real difference between us and Nobody if we just remove the supernatural part of his story? Can someone say that he/she didn’t have imaginary friends as a child? Haven’t we all watched the world like something magic? Gaiman manages to give us back that magic. And with it, a piece of our lost innocence that is hidden deep inside each and every one of us.
