The Knife of Never Letting Go
Front cover of first edition
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| Author | Patrick Ness |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Chaos Walking |
| Genre | Young-adult science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
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Publication date
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5 May 2008 |
| Pages | 496 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 233261939 |
| Followed by | The Ask and the Answer |
The Knife of Never Letting Go is a young-adult novel by Patrick Ness, published by Walker Books in May 2008. It inaugurated the Chaos Walking series, was celebrated by critics, and won annual awards including the Booktrust Teenage Prize, the Guardian Award, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
The Knife was Ness's first work for children or young adults. According to The Guardian's coverage of its award, "He turned to children's fiction after he had the idea for a world where it is impossible to escape information overload, and knew it was right for teenagers."
Todd Hewitt is the only boy left in Prentisstown, a small settlement on 'New World'--an alien planet only recently colonized by humanity. Todd is within days of his thirteenth birthday, the age in Prentisstown at which all boys "become men."
Todd has been told that all the women and nearly all the men on New World were killed in a war with the Spackle that occurred around the time of his birth. The Spackle are New World's native inhabitant and are blamed for the release of the "germ" that caused the majority of deaths and was particularly fatal to females. The inhabitants of Prentisstown claim that every Spackle was wiped out during the war and Todd has no reason to believe otherwise. As a side effect of the virus, the remaining men in Prentisstown can hear each others' (and animals') thoughts, described as an ever-present cascade of ‘Noise’.
The men of Prentisstown make up the last surviving settlement on New World--at least occurring to Mayor Prentiss, after whom the town is named.
At the beginning of the book, Todd and his dog, Manchee, discover a lone patch of silence (a 'hole in the Noise') in a local swamp. Bewildered, Todd and Manchee make their way back into town.
When Todd explains the silence to Ben and Cillian, his adoptive parents, his Noise accidentally projects the discovery to the entire town. Ben and Cillian mysteriously reveal they have been planning Todd's escape from Prentisstown for nearly his entire life. The two men immediately force him to leave Prentisstown, with just a satchel of supplies and Manchee to accompany him. Todd unwillingly obeys. Cillian fights off Davy Prentiss, the Mayor's son, and other men from the town while Ben gives Todd his own hunting knife and Todd’s deceased mother’s diary.
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Wikipedia