The Graveyard Book

A man named Jack holds his knife in front of him. The knife is sharp and wet with blood. Jack has already killed a man, a woman and a child, but he has one more victim to attend to: a small toddler. He climbs the stairs to the bedroom at the top of the house, vowing not to smile until he’s done. When Jack reaches the bedroom, the moonlight is just bright enough to illuminate the crib. But when Jack raises the knife to stab the figure in the crib, he stops—it’s just a teddy bear. The baby is gone. Jack sniffs and memorizes the baby’s milky smell. He follows the scent through the house and out the front door. On the porch, Jack grunts in frustration. It’s a foggy night. He marches up the hill.

The baby has been a terror ever since he learned to walk. He loves climbing and wandering. Earlier, a crash woke him up. Since he was bored, he scaled his crib and fell onto a pile of soft toys. Taking care to not cry—crying attracts attention—the baby left his room and slid down the stairs on his bottom, pacifier in hand. At the bottom of the stairs, the wet diaper fell off. The baby toddled out of the house and up the hill. 

The fog is thinner at the top of the hill. The narrator asks the reader to notice the abandoned funeral chapel, stone tombs and headstones, and various animals. But the narrator says readers wouldn’t be able to see a “pale, plump woman” who’s just misty shadow. The woman approaches the graveyard’s locked gates and calls for Mr. Owens, her husband. Mr. Owens stares at the baby at Mrs. Owens’s feet, who reaches out to grab Mrs. Owens’s finger. Mrs. Owens asks what to do with the baby, but her husband points out it’s not their concern—the baby is alive. Mr. Owens notes that a man—presumably the baby’s parent—is coming into the graveyard. But Mrs. Owens insists the man doesn’t look like family.

Even though he’s a ghost himself and has been dead for several hundred years, Mr. Owens’s mouth drops open when he sees a ghost appear. This ghost isn’t a normal one: it’s gray like static and barely in focus. In a panicky voice, the ghost screams that the man that’s approaching (Jack) is trying to hurt her baby. Mrs. Owens realizes this ghost is the baby’s mother; she just died. The ghost’s panic wakes other ghosts in the graveyard. As ghosts gather, Mrs. Owens puts an arm around the new ghost and speaks quietly to her. The ghost begins to fade, but Mrs. Owens promises to “try” and asks her husband if he’ll be the baby’s father—the ghost is asking them to protect her son. The man scales the fence and catches sight of the infant as Mr. Owens agrees. The staticky ghost disappears.

Mrs. Owens puts her arms out and beckons the baby. Jack watches as the baby disappears in a swirl of mist. Jack calls to the baby several times, and a strange man appears before him. Though Jack’s clothes are dark, this stranger’s clothes are darker—and he somehow manages to look even more terrifying than Jack himself. Jack explains that he’s looking for a lost baby. The stranger pulls out keys and leads Jack to the gate. Jack pulls out his knife, knowing he could murder this man, but then the stranger says that Jack probably saw a fox, not a baby. The stranger opens the gate as Jack mulls this over.

The stranger locks the gate behind Jack and says that Jack doesn’t need to remember this conversation. Jack agrees and realizes he only saw a fox. After watching Jack walk back down the hill, the stranger then heads to the middle of the graveyard, where the landscape forms a natural amphitheater. Josiah Worthington bought the graveyard 300 years ago and ensured it would remain a graveyard. He reserved the best spot at the top of the hill for himself. Though the graveyard houses about 10,000 souls, fewer than 300 gather in the amphitheater to discuss the matter of the baby.

Josiah Worthington insists this is ridiculous. Mr. Owens—who, in life, made furniture for Josiah Worthington and still admires the man—haltingly says that his wife sees it as her duty to keep the baby. At this, Josiah points out that the “creature” must return to its “natural home.” Mrs. Owens cuts Josiah off and insists that this is silly—she should be worrying about getting the baby food, not arguing with “fiddle-pated old dunderheads.” She also reminds everyone that the baby’s mother made her promise to care for the baby Caius Pompeius, the old Roman, asks what Mrs. Owens plans to feed the baby. Mother Slaughter, meanwhile, asks where the baby will live. She looks shocked when Mrs. Owens suggests they give the baby the Freedom of the Graveyard.

Caius Pompeius concedes that they’ve given the Freedom of the Graveyard to someone before, but that someone isn’t a living human. Reluctantly, the stranger—Silas—approaches the ghosts and says he supports Mrs. Owens. It will “take a graveyard” to raise this baby. Since he can leave the graveyard, Silas offers to fetch food for the baby. When Mother Slaughter points out that Silas could easily have to abandon his duties, Silas offers a suggestion: the Owenses will be the baby’s parents, while Silas will be a formal guardian. He promises to find another caregiver if he ever has to leave.

Silas asks Mrs. Owens if the baby has a name. She wasn’t able to learn anything from the ghost of the baby’s mother, but Silas says a new name will protect the baby. Several ghosts note that the baby looks like people they knew in life, but Mrs. Owens spits that the baby looks like “nobody but himself.” Silas declares that they’ll call the baby Nobody Owens. Nobody, who’s been sleeping, wakes up, stares at Silas, and then wails. Caius Pompeius sends Mrs. Owens away so the other ghosts can discuss the matter without her.

Mrs. Owens waits with Nobody outside the funeral chapel, which was declared a building of historical interest 40 years before. It’s been empty and dilapidated for decades. Mrs. Owens sings a lullaby she remembers from her childhood, but she forgets the final line. She sings until Silas joins her. He leads her into the building and puts down a cardboard box full of food. Then, he pulls out a banana, a fruit Mrs. Owens has never seen and Silas has never eaten. Baby Nobody eats it happily as Silas suggests they house the boy here. Flustered, Mrs. Owens insists she doesn’t want to bother Silas. As Mrs. Owens cleans Nobody’s face, Silas says he can leave the graveyard. When Mrs. Owens says she can’t, Silas says it must be good to belong.

The ghosts discuss into early morning. But the arrival of a beautiful woman on horseback—the Lady on the Grey—stops them short. She’s the one who takes each person to their death. She announces that “the dead should have charity.” After this, the ghosts decide to give Nobody the Freedom of the Graveyard. Within the hour, Nobody is fast asleep in the Owenses’ tomb. Just before sunrise, Silas goes to the house of Nobody’s birth parents and inspects the bodies. Meanwhile, Jack grows increasingly angry. He can’t figure out where he went wrong in his attempt to murder the toddler. Jack plots his next move and decides he doesn’t need to tell the Convocation that he failed.