Press

What the critics say

Haddon is to be congratulated for imagining a new kind of hero, for the humbling instruction this warm and often funny novel offers and for showing that the best lives are lived where difference is cherished
- Daily Telegraph

The clash between Christopher's view of the world and the way it looks to the rest of us makes this an extraordinarily moving, often blackly funny read. It is hard to think of anyone who would not be moved and delighted by this book
- Financial Times

A stroke of genius, as the advantages of having a naive, literal-minded boy in the driving seat are manifold . . . we do learn what it might feel like to have Asperger's Syndrome
- TES

Supremely well-written, funny and oddly affecting
- Daily Telegraph

The book gave me that rare, greedy feeling of: this is so good I want to read it all at once but I mustn't or it will be over too soon
- Observer

Exceptional by any standards
- Sunday Telegraph

Brilliantly inventive, full of dazzling set-pieces, unbearbly sad, yet also skilfully dodging any encounters with sentimentality, this isn't simply the most original novel I've read in years . . . It's also one of the best
- The Times

Wonderful . . . Funny, sad and extraordinarily original
- Guardian

Outstanding and moving
- The Irish Times

A triumph from first page to last . . . Haddon's prose is empathetic and you cannot help but be drawn into young Christopher's world
- Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post

A heart-warming story about a boy struggling to communicate with the world
- The Good Book Guide

So genuine . . . It is chillingly heartbreaking and passionately positive in equal measure
- Books for Keeps

An intriguing, enlightening and totally compelling read with surely the most unlikely hero in young people's literature
- Northern Echo

Laugh-out-loud funny
- TimeOut

It's pretty much flawless . . . Haddon stay compassionate to all his characters, but not once does his story descend into treacly pathos or easy tears. This is a high ambition fully achieved
- Evening Standard