Fairy Tale

Stephen King delivers a spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy named Charlie Reade who inherits keys to a parallel world. Charlie appears as a regular high school student, skilled in baseball and football, yet carries the heavy burden of grief after his mother’s death in a hit-and-run accident. His father’s subsequent alcoholism forces Charlie to mature quickly and care for him. At age seventeen, Charlie meets an aging recluse named Howard Bowditch and his dog Radar. Bowditch lives in a large house atop a hill with a locked shed that emits strange sounds. After performing jobs for Bowditch, Charlie loses his heart to Radar. When Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape containing a story no one would believe. The recording reveals that the shed contains a portal to another world where good and evil are at war. King’s storytelling soars in this magnificent tale, pitting good against overwhelming evil. A heroic boy and his dog must lead the battle for both their world and ours. This narrative emerged from King’s early pandemic reflection on what writing could make him happy, inspired by visions of a vast deserted city with glass towers piercing clouds.