Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her - and the life he knows vanishes like smoke. Several hours later, the girl is gone too. And by the following morning Richard Mayhew has been erased from his world. His bank cards no longer work, taxi drivers won't stop for him, his landlord rents his apartment out to strangers. He has become invisible, and inexplicably consigned to a London of shadows and darkness - to a city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere. For this is the home of Door, the mysterious girl whom Richard rescued in the London Above. A personage of great power and nobility in this murky, candlelit realm, she is on a mission to discover the cause of her family's slaughter, and in doing so preserve this strange underworld kingdom from the malevolence that means to destroy it. And with nowhere else to turn, Richard Mayhew must now join the Lady Door's entourage in their determined - and possibly fatal - quest. For the dread journey ever-downward - through bizarre anachronisms and dangerous incongruities, and into dusty corners of stalled time - is Richard's final hope, his last road back to a "real" world that is growing disturbingly less real by the minute.
Neverwhere
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"[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"
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
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
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
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
83 of 85 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). His style is fluid and engaging, his characters are very much alive and moving the various layers of intrigue along at a good pace. [Friederike Knabe]
41 of 42 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.
123 of 129 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!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 860 reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
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 day 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 2 days 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 7 days ago by Mrs. Ann Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new find in an author
A great 'listen' - a bought the audio version and enjoyed happy hours of entertainment while travelling around at work, great! Read more
Published 13 days ago by Michele Lange
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good fun
This was not a deep read but really good fun, I wish there was a sequel to it. Mr Gaiman are you listening?
Published 16 days ago by Mrs. M. E. Schofield
4.0 out of 5 stars
A cracking read
This is my first Neil Gaiman and not my last. Much funnier than I expected. China Mieville Light with jokes. Kinda sad when it finished. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Mitis Green
4.0 out of 5 stars
great read
have worked in London for over twenty years and love the thought of a "world below"
Great read and lots of fun. Read more
Great read and lots of fun. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Malcolm N. Baldwin
4.0 out of 5 stars
where?
Where?
This is my kind of story, fiction, mysterious, reluctant hero, baddies, some of the baddies habits were questionable, in fact it made me quite sweamish in parts... Read more
This is my kind of story, fiction, mysterious, reluctant hero, baddies, some of the baddies habits were questionable, in fact it made me quite sweamish in parts... Read more
Published 21 days ago by mars bar
4.0 out of 5 stars
He's done it again - a master peice
Having come to the book via the tv and radio adaptations I was interested to see weather it read just as well. I was not disappointed. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Mrs C.J. Raven
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
The most imaginative novel I have read for ages. Were it true.
Neil joins Corey Doctorow on my favourite authors list.
Now I'll go and find and read more from him. Read more
Neil joins Corey Doctorow on my favourite authors list.
Now I'll go and find and read more from him. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Mr
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fantasy > Contemporary
- Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction
- Books > Horror > Contemporary Horror
- Books > Horror > Fantasy
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
