NPR talks to Neil Gaiman about his new novel, The Graveyard Book

NPR talks to Neil Gaiman about his new novel, The Graveyard Book:

Gaiman says the idea for the novel came to him 23 years ago, when he and his family were living in England. At the time, the only safe place for his 2-year-old son to ride his tricycle was in the local churchyard.

“He would ride… his tricycle, up and down the paths and between the gravestones,” remembers Gaiman. “And I would sit there watching… this incredibly happy kid in a graveyard.”

One day the author had a flash of inspiration: Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book told the story of an orphaned child adopted by wild animals; why not write a story about a child who is adopted by dead people?

While touring for the book, Gaiman did readings of all the chapters from The Graveyard Book, which are now available online. And you can read NPR’s review of The Graveyard Book here.

For what it’s worth, a new Gaiman novel is always big news around Opus HQ. Via