Christopher John Francis Boone is 15 years old. He knows all the countries of the world, their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He loves math, relates well to animals, but does not have the understanding of human emotions. He cannot bear to be touched and always seeks routine, order and predictability in his daily life, as this makes him feel safe and secure.

The above description corresponds to a child with Asperger’s Syndrome, a subtype of Autism within the autism spectrum, whose main characteristics are difficulty in social interaction, affectivity and communication, lack of empathy and sensitivity towards others, tendency to self-centredness, naivety and credulity, lack of knowledge of limits and social norms, as well as restricted and repetitive interests.

Also, a certain obsession with routine, order and turning everyday acts into rituals . The main difference between Asperger’s syndrome and the other subtypes of the autism spectrum is that these people do not present a delay in their intelligence , sometimes being above average, as in the case of high functioning autistic people. However, this particular child is part of a work of fiction.

The autism spectrum experienced in the first person

Christopher is the protagonist of the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ( The story is narrated in first person by this 15 year old with Asperger’s Syndrome who lives with his father in Swindon (Wiltshire, UK).

It is a novel by British writer Mark Haddon which won the 2003 Withbread Book of the Year Award, the 2005 Best First Book for Young Readers Award and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. As a young man, Haddon worked with people with autism, which has allowed him to reliably describe the thoughts of a child with this condition.

The story begins when Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog dead in the garden, and is initially blamed for the event. From then on, the routine and order that Christopher had created around his life gradually crumbles as he investigates who the real dog killer was.

The brilliance of the novel lies in Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: tortuous and emotionally charged moments are described by a child who cannot imagine the emotion . The effect is dazzling, making it a fun and moving story, while at the same time giving us a different view of human behaviour and helping us to understand how an autistic person thinks, lives and feels.

Locked into their world, it is very difficult to communicate with people with autism, and it can be an almost impossible task to understand why they act strangely, overreact or behave impassively to different stimuli. Haddon tries to capture the ideas and reasoning that Christopher has about the events in his life, events seen from a completely different perspective than what we are used to .

A didactic and enjoyable reading

The curious incident of the dog at midnight lacks long and tedious descriptions, and its reading is made agile thanks to the dialogues between the characters and the simple explanations of the protagonist. Moreover, among the story’s plot, one can find mathematical and logical demonstrations , such as the explanation of Monty Hall’s problem, scientific and historical curiosities such as the fairies of Cottingley, and some literary references, especially to Sherlock Holmes’ novels.

A book that is highly recommended for those interested in autism, as they will learn in a fun and playful way what it really takes to experience this behavioral disorder without necessarily resorting to theoretical manuals.