This is the story of a young businessman who gets trapped in a world that lies beneath the streets of London and is populated by saints, monsters, murderers and angels.
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"[Gaiman] is, simply put, a treasure house of story, and we are lucky to have him in any media."-- "Stephen King""I didn't ever want this book to end...Hunter, Islington, Door -- these characters are part of my life now. I see them when I turn corners."-- "Tori Amos"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Publisher
This is the author’s preferred edition, never before published in the UK.
Also includes exclusive extra material:
An Introduction to This Text by the Author
An Altogether Different Prologue
A new Interview with Neil Gaiman about NEVERWHERE
Reading-group Discussion Questions
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First Sentence
She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
85 of 87 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Everybody traveling in London by Tube, is familiar with the loudspeaker's warning "Mind the Gap", that is the space between platform and train carriage. Reading Gaiman, "Gaps" takes on a much more complex meaning... People can fall through the cracks, literally, not only down onto the rails but much deeper, ending up in "London Below". Richard Mayhew, a young man with nothing much happening in his life, is an unlikely Samaritan. Still, when confronted with a choice he follows his charitable instinct and assists a wounded rag girl he finds lying in the street. To save her from her apparent killers he goes on a quest and from this moment his life turns into a rollercoaster of discovery and danger.
"Neverwhere" is a brilliant yarn of life in the underbelly of the city, with shady human characters, speaking rats and special "guides". There is more than one reality for sure. In London Above, Richard and the rag girl, named appropriately "Door", can be seen but not recalled beyond the moment. The real-life maze of London underground tunnels, hidden passageways and dead ends provide the existent, yet twisted, backdrop to the story. Time and distances have no meaning. The names of tube stations acquire new relevance: the Earl resides at Earl's Court, the black Friar monks are in Blackfriars and Islington is an Angel. Following Door and her unusual companions, Richard discovers the limits of his endurance. He has to question his existence and reality. While his desire to get back to his normal life keeps him going, his chances to shake loose from the shadowy underworld increasingly appear to diminish...
The novel, which expands on Gaiman's successful tv production, is a fascinating read, whether you know London or not (yet).
... Read more ›42 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Neil Gaiman is a favourite writer of mine and this is a good showcase for his talent for his dark and potent imagination. Magically he takes that famously surreal map of the London Underground and twists it into something far stranger that lies beneath and behind the real London - a place where the famous station names come alive. Here we have a real angel called Islington, a Earl who holds court on his own underground carriage and a group of religious recluses known as the Black Friars (to name but a few).
As with all Gaiman's work, there is a great deal of dark themes in the book (The streets of London Below owe a lot to those areas of London above where the homeless live) and Gaiman makes sure this doesn't turn into a simple one joke idea. His characterisations are absolutely fantastic. Whilst Richard (the hero) is a fairly bland innocent abroad, he balances him against the sly, old Marquis de Carabas and the pantomime villany of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar - a pair of vicious (and yet comic) characters who look to have shambled straight out of a Victorian nightmare.
The story itself is taut, beautifully-written, thought-provoking and a pleasure to read. Not a long read but one I'm sure you will come back to time after time.
124 of 130 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Neverwhere is a fantastic piece of modern fantasy and I suggest that everyone who likes London and the surreal read it. I give it 5 stars, usually, but... DO NOT BUY THE AMERICAN VERSION!!! This is a British book, and the American version has been sorely edited. And I'm not talking about the second prologue, either. All my favorite lines are missing from the Avon printing. Apperantly Americans couldn't handle funny lines in serious scenes... So he edited out much good humour. Look, it's less good. Buy British!
58 of 61 people found the following review helpful
By George Eliot
Format:Paperback
Richard Mayhew has just been "a Good Samaritan" to a girl lying bleeding on a London pavement, and has thereby ruined his entire life. The girl, you see, a young lady by the name of Door, is an important person in the world of "London Below", and some very unpleasant people are trying to kill her. By hiding her, Richard becomes "one of the people who fell through the cracks", invisible to the inhabitants of the normal world - London Above -and easy prey for the terrifying creatures of London Below. Until he finds Door again, and is sucked into her quest to find the murderers of her family...
Gaiman has created an eerie otherworld in the sewers of London and the tunnels and stations of the Underground that is complete in every detail and so interwoven with the "real" world that its frightening. Never having been to London, I'm starting to be a bit scared of the Tube Stations: real shepards at Shepards Bush (ones you don't ever want to meet), an earl in Earl's Court, saxophone players who live both in the Above and the Below, Old Bailey and Hammersmith are people, Knightsbridge is a bad neighbourhood...
And at the end you are left with enough answers to satisfy as concerns the main plotline, but not all the answers you want. There is so much detail in London Below that there are thousands of things begging to be explored and examined: The system of fiefdoms which apparently rules Below, but which is never really explained, the importance of Door's family, the Seven Sisters, the story of the swashbuckling, sardonic Marquis de Carabas (books could be written about him, he is undoubtably my favourite character) and more; really the list could go on forever. But that is what makes it all so convincing: Gaiman wastes no time explaining anything, he just tells the story.... Read more ›
Gaiman has created an eerie otherworld in the sewers of London and the tunnels and stations of the Underground that is complete in every detail and so interwoven with the "real" world that its frightening. Never having been to London, I'm starting to be a bit scared of the Tube Stations: real shepards at Shepards Bush (ones you don't ever want to meet), an earl in Earl's Court, saxophone players who live both in the Above and the Below, Old Bailey and Hammersmith are people, Knightsbridge is a bad neighbourhood...
And at the end you are left with enough answers to satisfy as concerns the main plotline, but not all the answers you want. There is so much detail in London Below that there are thousands of things begging to be explored and examined: The system of fiefdoms which apparently rules Below, but which is never really explained, the importance of Door's family, the Seven Sisters, the story of the swashbuckling, sardonic Marquis de Carabas (books could be written about him, he is undoubtably my favourite character) and more; really the list could go on forever. But that is what makes it all so convincing: Gaiman wastes no time explaining anything, he just tells the story.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really enjoyed this
Really enjoyed this. I've read several of his books with Terry Pratchett which have all been good. This one was hard to put down once I started
Published 8 days ago by RICHARD J DRAKE
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really enjoyed this one
I really enjoyed this book, it shows some excellent imagination and creativeness from the author. The thought of there being an underworld beneath London that ticks alongside it... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Jerico
5.0 out of 5 stars
I think this is my favourite book of all time
Take Alice in Wonderland, set it in London, twist all the characters to become like Londons actual inhabitants, add a pinch of greek myth, a tab of acid, magic, mystery and a... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Ty
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neverwhere
Gaiman is one of my favourite writers. His stories are wholly unique, mixing effortlessly a modern setting with the dark and unexpected just brooding beneath the surface. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Jen B.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favourites
This is one of my favourite fantasy books - the ideas as ever always come with a twist - London above will never look the same again
Published 23 days ago by A. Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman writes extremely well. This is no exception. It is an imaginative, well told story written in good English.
Published 26 days ago by Ann Christine Gurevitch
4.0 out of 5 stars
escapist
Light read, amusing and interesting characters.
Heard this abridged on the radio, bought as a holiday read. Read more
Heard this abridged on the radio, bought as a holiday read. Read more
Published 27 days ago by babs
4.0 out of 5 stars
Neverwhere
If you put Douglas Adams, fforde and Salinger into a bag and gave it a good shake you get Neverwhere
Published 1 month ago by daniel parish
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
An alternative London, confusing in places but the story holds together well, the characters clearly described you will never look at rats in the same light again
Published 1 month ago by feralco
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic story
Fun and eventful fantasy of life " below London" where there really is an. angel at Islington. The recent BBC 4 Serialisation of the book was brilliant!
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Ann Taylor
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