“I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.”

“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

Christopher John Francis Boone understands maths and science. What he can’t understand other human beings; they make no sense.

When Christopher finds the neighbour’s dog lying dead on the lawn, he decides to find the culprit by writing a murder mystery. What else will he find?

Mark Haddon’s magnum opus follows the extraordinary life of Christopher Boone. Christopher likes to have a reason for everything and thinks things out in advance. For example, he has predetermined colour preferences; he loves red but despises brown and yellow. He hates brown and yellow because there are some unpleasant things in those colours. Another example is the fact that each chapter is assigned a prime number instead of ordinary ordinal numbers.

This book is marketed as a childrens book and is very gripping and relatable, but be warned: the complexity of the maths here is beyond many.