Poodlecide Pays

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 2/14/2005

PW'sstarred review called it "an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling voice." Other rave notices and numerous awards greeted Mark Haddon's 2003 debut, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Copies in print of the Doubleday hardcover, which spent nine weeks on our charts, total well over 200,000 after 29 printings. Vintage's trade paperback, published in May with a first printing of 125,000 copies, just reached a milestone: now in its 21st printing, the novel boasts 1,035,000 copies. According to Vintage publicity manager Sloane Crosley, its success stems in large part from "appeal to a broad range of readers, including a young adult audience." She adds, "Not a week has gone by that I don't have some form of interest due to the book's autism thread." (The plot revolves around the discovery of a murdered dog by a high-functioning autistic 15-year-old boy.)