Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Add A Spot of Bother to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Look Inside | Reading Guide

A Spot of Bother

By Mark Haddon

By Mark Haddon

By Mark Haddon

By Mark Haddon

By Mark Haddon
Read by Simon Vance

By Mark Haddon
Read by Simon Vance

By Mark Haddon
Read by Charles Keating

By Mark Haddon
Read by Charles Keating

Best Seller
Paperback $17.00

Aug 14, 2007 | ISBN 9780307278869

Ebook $5.99

Aug 14, 2007 | ISBN 9780307387691

Audiobook Download $20.00

Sep 05, 2006 | 703 Minutes

Audiobook Download $15.00

Sep 05, 2006 | 380 Minutes

All Formats
+
    A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
    Paperback $17.00
    Aug 14, 2007 | ISBN 9780307278869

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (3) +
    • $17.00

      Aug 14, 2007 | ISBN 9780307278869

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Aug 14, 2007 | ISBN 9780307387691

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Sep 05, 2006 | ISBN 9780739342657

      703 Minutes

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Sep 05, 2006 | ISBN 9780739341513

      380 Minutes

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About A Spot of Bother

    A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. At sixty-one, George Hall is settling down to a comfortable retirement. When his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting married to the deeply inappropriate Ray, the Hall family is thrown into a tizzy. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. As parents and children fall apart and come together, Haddon paints a disturbing yet amusing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

    A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

    About A Spot of Bother

    A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. At sixty-one, George Hall is settling down to a comfortable retirement. When his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces that she is getting married to the deeply inappropriate Ray, the Hall family is thrown into a tizzy. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. As parents and children fall apart and come together, Haddon paints a disturbing yet amusing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

    A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

    About A Spot of Bother

    George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” Some things in life can’t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie’s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.

    At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it’s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George’s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband’s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie’s observation that Ray has “strangler’s hands.” Jamie himself has his own problems — his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie’s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can’t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob.

    Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart — and come together — as a family is the true subject of Haddon’s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

    A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Once again, Haddon proves a master of a story at once hilarious, poignant, dark, and profoundly human. Here the madness — literally — of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon’s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love.

    About A Spot of Bother

    George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” Some things in life can’t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie’s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.

    At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it’s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George’s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband’s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie’s observation that Ray has “strangler’s hands.” Jamie himself has his own problems — his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie’s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can’t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob.

    Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart — and come together — as a family is the true subject of Haddon’s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

    A Spot of Bother is Mark Haddon’s unforgettable follow-up to the internationally beloved bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Once again, Haddon proves a master of a story at once hilarious, poignant, dark, and profoundly human. Here the madness — literally — of family life proves rich comic fodder for Haddon’s crackling prose and bittersweet insights into misdirected love.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Listen to a sample from A Spot of Bother

    Also by Mark Haddon

    Dogs and Monsters
    The Porpoise
    The Pier Falls
    The Red House
    Boom!
    See all books by Mark Haddon

    Also by Mark Haddon

    Dogs and Monsters
    The Porpoise
    The Pier Falls
    The Red House
    Boom!
    See all books by Mark Haddon

    Also by Mark Haddon

    Dogs and Monsters
    The Porpoise
    The Pier Falls
    The Red House
    Boom!
    See all books by Mark Haddon

    Also by Mark Haddon

    Dogs and Monsters
    The Porpoise
    The Pier Falls
    The Red House
    Boom!
    See all books by Mark Haddon

    About Mark Haddon

    Mark Haddon is the author of the bestselling novels The Red House and A Spot of Bother. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction… More about Mark Haddon

    About Mark Haddon

    Mark Haddon is the author of the bestselling novels The Red House and A Spot of Bother. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction… More about Mark Haddon

    About Mark Haddon

    Mark Haddon is the author of the bestselling novels The Red House and A Spot of Bother. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction… More about Mark Haddon

    About Mark Haddon

    Mark Haddon is the author of the bestselling novels The Red House and A Spot of Bother. His novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction… More about Mark Haddon

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Vintage
    Aug 14, 2007 | 368 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307278869

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Vintage
    Aug 14, 2007 | 368 Pages | ISBN 9780307387691

    Category: Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $20.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Sep 05, 2006 | 703 Minutes | ISBN 9780739342657

    Category: Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $15.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Sep 05, 2006 | 380 Minutes | ISBN 9780739341513

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    “A Spot of Bother snaps, crackles and pops with humor and pathos. . . . Sparklingly written. . . . Haddon deftly pulls this off with what we can now hail as his trademark tenderness.” —Los Angeles Times

    “Totally brilliant. . . . Wondrously articulate…. A Spot of Bother serves as a fine example of why novels exist.” —The New York Times Book Review

    “Superbly entertaining.” —The Washington Post Book World

    “[Haddon’s] craftsmanship is dazzling, his sense of character profound, his kindness toward his creations that of a consummate caregiver. Humorous, occasionally heart-rending and always enthralling, A Spot of Bother is a wonder and a joy.” —Chicago Sun-Times

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

         An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook