Fairy Tale

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war; and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours. Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid; great at baseball and football; a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten; and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen; he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master; Howard Bowditch; a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill; with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then; when Bowditch dies; he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows; and has kept secret all his long life; is that inside the shed is a portal to another world. King’s storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil; and a heroic boy—and his dog—must lead the battle. Early in the Pandemic; King asked himself: “What could you write that would make you happy?” “As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked; I saw a vast deserted city—deserted but alive. I saw the empty streets; the haunted buildings; a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street. I saw smashed statues (of what I didn’t know; but I eventually found out). I saw a huge; sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds. Those images released the story I wanted to tell.”