The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Christopher Boone being my favourite literary character makes me reread this marvelous book again and again, giving it as a present to dear people, bringing it as a little treasure to my students and after long discussions enjoying the prime-numbered chapters sympathizing with fifteen-year-old boy who suffers from a mild form of autism, admiring his mathematical abilities and seeing him stand the test of the “normal” world full of noise, lies, strange emotions, puzzling idioms and undesired physical contact.

Advised by his teacher to start writing a story and inspired by Sherlock Holmes adventures, Christopher begins his own investigation into the murder of the neighbour dog describing it in his own description-missing way. This brings about unexpected consequences and reveals naïve bravery of a little boy who makes us think hard about the relevance of our own normality.

If I only had one word to define the book I would say “incredible”. If there was only one word to describe my feelings for Christopher the word would be “tenderness”.

Together with the Curious Incident some films revealing the topic of autism came into my life making the people around me wonder - if the reason of such great interest was my knowing someone who suffers from a similar disease or my own abnormality… Anyways, the films are good and mostly known: “The Rain Man”, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” and “Snow Pie”. Enjoy…