Other editions of book The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean

For fans of Room by Emma Donoghue, an extraordinary novel about a child who is kept incarcerated - from the bestselling, prizewinning author of SkelligBilly Deane is the child of an illicit relationship between a priest and a young hairdresser. He is born on the very day that terrorists attack his town, and the fact that he survives and flourishes persuades his father that he is a special child with special gifts. Even so, Billy's birth can't be made public, and he spends his chidhood in a single room, dreaming of other worlds, occasionally visited at night by his father. When the visits come to a sudden end, his mother decides it's time for Billy to come out into the world, helped by a couple of friendly townspeople, and soon he finds that his supposed gifts bring him a certain celebrity. But his father hasn't gone for good, and there's a terrible reckoning still to be made.David Almond's first adult novel is a brilliant account of a child long kept hidden from the world who finally finds that he can establish his place in it - only to be confronted with a past that won't go away.'A lovely book, full of wonderments. Billy's memories have real lyricism and a beguiling narrative voice' Sunday Times'Not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well-paced, as we might expect from a master storyteller' John Burnside, GuardianDavid Almond is the author of Skellig and other novels and plays for children. He has won many distuinguished awards including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010, the Carnegie Medal and two Whitbreads.

From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, exquisitely written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes The Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself―and is determined on a kind of reckoning.

From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, exquisitely written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes The Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself—and is determined on a kind of reckoning.

Billy Dean is a secret child, growing up in the dark heart of Blinkbonny. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the smell of incense and cigarettes. His world is just a bed, some pictures of the holy island and a single locked door, but his father fills his dreams with mysterious tales and dreadful warnings. When his father disappears, Billy's mum brings him out into the world, and he learns the dreadful truth of what happened in Blinkbonny on the day he was born. Gradually he finds he has the gift of helping to rebuild what has been broken. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself and is determined on a kind of reckoning.