Lanny is like nothing else I've ever read, and it deserves the widest possible readership. It's an amazing piece of work. Lanny is an eccentric child, perhaps somewhat autistic, who both enchants and baffles his parents and neighbours in a small rural village in England. There is an encounter with a mythical figure, Dead Papa Toothwort, an ancient spirit, which changes everybody's lives. The story is told in a fabulous collage of characters, voices and words, constructing a parable for our times. Absolute genius, it will stay with you, haunt you for weeks.