A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Walker Books

9781406311525

In June Patrick Ness was awarded the Carnegie medal for his young adult novel Monsters of Men, the third book in his Chaos Walking series.  The two previous books - The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer - were shortlisted for the prestigious award in 2009 and 2010.

Patrick Ness @ Books In Print

His latest novel is based on the ideas and illustrations of Siobhan Dowd, an author whose premature death prevented her from writing the story herself.  Ness never met Siobhan, even though they shared the same literary editor.  Even so, after Dowd's death from cancer, aged 47, in 2007 he was asked to take the idea she'd been developing for her fifth novel and write it himself.

The result is A Monster Calls, the story of 13-year-old Conor who is coming to terms with his own mother's battle against cancer.  "I would normally say 'no' to turning someone else's idea into a book," admits Ness. "But the idea was so strong and so vivid that I never felt like I was completely fabricating something she didn't want.

Read the complete BBC article here.