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The Book of Lost Things
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The Book of Lost Things (2006) (edit title/settings)

by John Connolly (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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,... read more

Summary edit see section history

Takes place during World War II. A young boy's family changes when his father marries another woman after his mother dies, and they have a baby together. Struggling to get along, and accept his new brother, twelve-year-old David plunges himself into reading. Soon, the lines between fantasy... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Takes place during World War II. A young boy's family changes when his father marries another woman after his mother dies, and they have a baby together. Struggling to get along, and accept his new brother, twelve-year-old David plunges himself into reading. Soon, the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred and he finds himself immersed in a literal story wonderland. Battling wolves, meeting dwarves, and trying to escape the evil clutches of the Crooked Man, David tries to navigate himself back home in a land where all folk and fairy tales take on a more sinister and adult meaning.

The book follows David, a young boy who struggles with his mother's death and his father's remarriage. When a World War II bomber plane crashes into his garden, he finds himself in the fantasy world of his books; he must find the King, who can return him to his home. The novel takes a fresh look at traditional fairy tales, following a child's journey into adulthood.

Characters edit see section history

  • David: The protagonist who is 12 years old. He loves to read (particularly fantasy), a trait he gained from his mother. His mother passes away and his father meets someone new. When Rose and Georgie come into David's life, he has a hard time adjusting to the new life.
  • The Crooked Man: A trickster. He can move between the real world and the story world.
  • Rose: The woman that David's father meets, after David's mother dies. She is the mother of David's half-brother Georgie.
  • David's Father: A code-breaker during WWII. He has a very hard time coping after his wife's death. He meets another woman, named Rose at the 'not quite hospital' as his wife is dying. His half brother is a cuckoo in the nest to David and he escapes through his books.
  • Georgie: David's half-brother, whom David deeply resents. Rose is his mother.
  • The Woodsman: The protector of the woods and its inhabitants. The first person David meets in the new world.
  • Leroi: The leader of the wolf-men (Loup). He wants to take over the kingdom and leads an entire army of wolves and Loup against the king.
  • Jonathan Tulvey and Anna: Rose's great uncle disappeared as a child along with Anna, an adopted sister of his.
  • Roland: A soldier that helps guide David to the King, after first requesting that David help him with his quest to find another knight named Raphael.
  • Raphael: A knight and man Roland loved who disappeared investigating a moving castle. He sacrifices himself for love and for David.
  • Scylla: Roland's white horse.
  • The Beast: One of the kingdom's monsters, resembles a giant caterpillar.
  • Fletcher: The leader of a village of hunters.
  • The Huntress: A woman who makes and hunts child-animal hybrids.
  • David's mother: David's father's first wife; she is very ill at the beginning of the novel.
  • Snow White: An insufferable woman who lives with seven dwarves. The dwarves tried to poison her so now they have to support her by order of the courts.
  • The Enchantress: An entity that has enchanted a castle and its sleeping occupant.
  • Dr. Moberley: David's psychiatrist when David starts having "fits."
  • The King: The aging ruler of the kingdom; he is said to possess a book of knowledge. David thinks the king can help him to get back home.
Show all 19 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “David shook hands and watched with alarm as his fingers were swallowed up in Snow White's marshmallow palm.”
  • “And in the darkness David closed his eyes, as all that was lost was found again.”
  • “Then you must decide for yourself what to do. Remember, though, that nothing comes without cost. The villagers learned that as they sifted through the remains of their homes. There is a price to be paid for everything, and it is a good idea to find out that price before you make the agreement. Your friend the Woodsman called this fellow a trickster, and if that is what he is, then nothing he says is entirely to be trusted. Be careful in striking a bargain with him and listen closely to his words, for he will say less than he means and conceal more than he reveals.”
  • “. . . David did not want children crawling in there and getting into trouble. Instead, he would talk to them of stories and books, and explain to them how stories wanted to be told and books wanted to be read, and how everything that they ever needed to know about life and the land of which he wrote, or about any land or realm that they could imagine, was contained in books. And some of the children understood and some did not.”
  • “"...and there he was no longer old but a young man, for a man is always his father's child no matter how old he is or how long they have been apart."”
  • “A lifetime was but a moment in that place, and each man dreams his own heaven.”
  • “I've read about them. I've seen them in my book of Greek myths. For some reason, I don't think they belong in this story, yet here they are...”
    David
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “We all have our routines,” he said softly. “But they must have a purpose and provide an outcome that we can see and take some comfort from, or else they have no use at all. Without that, they are like the endless pacings of a caged animal. If they are not madness itself, then they are a prelude to it.”
    Highlighted by 47 Kindle customers
  • Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by flashlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world.
    Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers
  • “I believe in those whom I love and trust. All else is foolishness. This god is as empty as his church. His followers choose to attribute all of their good fortune to him, but when he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he is beyond their understanding and abandon themselves to his will. What kind of god is that?”
    Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers
  • Stories wanted to be read, David’s mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.
    Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers
  • This life is filled with threats and danger, David. We face those that we have to face, and there will be times when we must make the choice to act for a greater good, even at risk to ourselves, but we do not lay down our lives needlessly. Each of us has only one life to live, and one life to give. There is no glory in throwing it away where there is no hope.
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • “Then find routines that allow you to feel secure when they are done. You told me that you have a new brother: look to him each morning. Look to your father, and your stepmother. Tend to the flowers in the garden, or in the pots upon the windowsill. Seek others who are weaker than you are, and try to give them comfort where you can. Let these be your routines, and the rules that govern your life.”
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • Newspaper stories were as insubstantial as smoke, as long-lived as mayflies. They did not take root but were instead like weeds that crawled along the ground, stealing the sunlight from more deserving tales.
    Highlighted by 30 Kindle customers
  • “But I feared more the death of others. I did not want to lose them, and I worried about them while they were alive. Sometimes, I think that I concerned myself so much with the possibility of their loss that I never truly took pleasure in the fact of their existence.
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
  • The stories in books hate the stories contained in newspapers, David’s mother would say. Newspaper stories were like newly caught fish, worthy of attention only for as long as they remained fresh, which was not very long at all.
    Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers
  • That was what death was like: trapped in a small space with a big weight holding you down for all eternity.
    Highlighted by 21 Kindle customers
Show all 17 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

London and Elsewhere.
  • London: David lives in a nice home in London. The home has a mysterious Sunken Garden.

Organizations edit see section history

  • Loups: Half-men, half-wolves. They want to rule the kingdom.
  • The Brood: Harpie-like creatures; vicious hunters who live in the same canyon as the Trolls
  • Trolls: Creatures who prey on and live in the canyon with the Brood under a bridge; fond of riddles
  • Ravens: Wolf/Loup hunting partners
  • Dwarves: Small, mining men who live with Snow White

First Sentence edit see section history

Once upon a time -- for that is how all stories should begin -- there was a boy who lost his mother.

Table of Contents edit see section history

1. Of All That Was Found and All That Was Lost
2. Of Rose and Dr. Moberley, and the Importance of Details
3. Of the New House, the New Child, and the New King
4. Of Jonathan Tulvey and Billy Golding, and Men Who Dwell by Railway Tracks
5. Of Intruders and Transformations
6. Of the War, and the Way Between Worlds
7. Of the Woodsman and the Work of His Ax
8. Of Wolves, and Worse-Than-Wolves
9. Of the Loups and How They Came into Being
10. Of Tricksters and Trickery
11. Of the Children Lost in the Forest and What Befell Them
12. Of Bridges and Riddles, and the Many Unappealing Characteristics of Trolls
13. Of Dwarfs and Their Sometimes Irascible Nature
14. Of Snow White, Who Is Very Unpleasant Indeed
15. Of the Deer-Girl
16. Of the Three Surgeons
17. Of Centaurs and the Vanity of the Huntress
18. Of Roland
19. Of Roland's Tale and the Wolf Scout
20. Of the Village, and Roland's Second Tale
21. Of the Coming of the Beast
22. Of the Crooked Man and the Sowing of Doubt
23. Of the March of the Wolves
24. Of the Fortress of Thorns
25. Of the Enchantress and What Became of Raphael and Roland
26. Of Two Killings and Two Kings
27. Of the Castle, and the King's Greeting
28. Of the Book of Lost Things
29. Of the Crooked Man's Hidden Kingdom and the Treasures That He Kept There
30. Of the Crooked Man's Act of Betrayal
31. Of the Battle, and the Fate of Those Who Would Be King
32. Of Rose
33. Of All That Was Lost and All That Was Found

A Conversation with John Connolly

Of Fairy Tales, Dark Towers, and Other Such Matters: Some Notes on The Book of Lost Things
1. Rumpelstiltskin
2. The Water of Life
3. Little Red Riding Hood
4. Hansel and Gretel
5. The Three Billy-Goats Gruff
6. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
7. Goldilocks
8. The Three Army-Surgeons
9. The Goose-Girl
10. Beauty and the Beast
11. Sleeping Beauty
12. Robert Browning and "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
13. Centaurs
14. Harpies
15. The Death of Manius

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. John Connolly (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Atria Books
Country: Ireland
Publication Date: November 2006
ISBN: 0743298853
Page Count: 352

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PR6053.O48645 B66 2006
  • Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Adults themes, violence, etc.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Knee-Deep in Thunder
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass
  • The Neverending Story
  • Stardust

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

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