THE YEAR OF THE GAIMAN

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The sci-fi superstar’s newest is a deeply personal love letter – with horror, magic and suicides

The Ocean at the End of the Lane begins with an unnamed narrator coming back to his hometown in the English countryside to attend a funeral. This triggers a flood of memories from a horrific time when he was seven when a South African lodger commited suicide after gambling away all his money, which unleashes dark forces. Only the three mysterious women who live in the neighbouring farmhouse can help. Of all his projects, it is clear Gaiman holds this one closest to his heart – it was written as something of a love letter to his wife, the musician Amanda Palmer. “My wife was recording an album in Melbourne. Soon after I met her I discovered that being with a musician while they are recording means—emotionally and pretty much in any other way—that they are completely unavailable. She’ll have one relationship going on: with the album. So I missed her. Normally, my audience is me. And in this case it wasn’t; I was writing it for her because she was a long way away.”
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