Paperback

Published: 28th February 2012

Ships: 5 to 9 business days

RRP $24.99

$21.95

12%
OFF

 Add to Wishlist

• Read an extract from this book.
• Read more about the title as it was featured in the Booktopia Blog.

Click on the Google Preview image above to read some pages of this book!

Booktopia Comments

In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Green has done something quite remarkable. He has written a book which requires an adult intellect, and adult emotions, to navigate despite presenting it entirely from the perspective of the child within us all. It is a tense psychological thriller, and in parts, it is an absolute page-turner. And he has penned a warm and moving story about life, death, love, loyalty and destiny. This is no block-buster, but if you are anything like me, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend will leave you sadder, happier and itching to talk to someone about the ingenious, the incredible, the invisible Budo.

Toni Whitmont, Editor in Chief

Book Description

Told from the point of view of a child's imaginary friend, a heartwarming, heartbreaking read in the vein of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Room.

Budo is Max's imaginary friend. He and his fellow imaginary friends watch over their children until the day comes that the child stops imagining them. And then they're gone.

Budo has lasted a lot longer than most imaginary friends - four years - because Max needs him more. His parents argue about sending him to a special school. But Max is perfectly happy if everything is just kept the way it is, and nothing out of the ordinary happens.

Unfortunately, something out of the ordinary is going to happen - and then he'll need Budo more than ever...

About the Author

Matthew Green is a schoolteacher with Teacher of the Year credentials to his name. He has one Masters degree and is working on a second. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and daughter, plus a dog and cat.

According to popular wisdom, there are only seven original plot lines for stories and every thing else is but a variation. This is not a theory generally put about by publishers, nor by authors. No wonder then that every now and then I am presented with books that are almost mirror images of each other, despite being penned by different people. It breaks my heart to think that two authors might have laboured away, sometimes for years, only to find themselves shadow boxing their alter ego on release day.

If that were not hazardous enough for authors, there is the situation of a novel that has captured the zeitgeist of the moment, that becomes the standard by which all other ones in the genre are judged. In 2003 for example, Mark Haddon blew everyone away with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. That, and John Boyne's The Boy in Striped Pyjamas a few years later, became the benchmarks for the authentic depiction of the child's voice in adult fiction. Darren Groth's Kindling was a great addition, with the advantage of having a wonderfully Australian setting. Last year, Emma Donoghue's Room, listed for the Man Booker, added gravitas to this sub-genre of contemporary writing. There have been a swag of wannabes and not-good-enoughs but these four have stood out as beacons. Until now.

Recently, I was presented with three new novels for early 2012, each one being sold to me as the natural successor in that lineage. I have dipped into all three but only one quickly became mandatory reading.

I don't know which of the seven plot lines Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend draws on, but I can tell you that Matthew Green's novel is fresh and original enough to almost live up to its publisher's claim of being "unforgettable". Certainly it was that other over-used word - "unputdownable".

Not only is Green clever enough to get into the headspace of a youngster, he is clever enough to do it with the clarion call of authenticity - no mean feat given that the child in question is Budo, who is in fact an imaginary creation of a boy called Max.

Max is no ordinary boy. If he were described by an adult, he might be labelled autistic, or Asbergers, or something else (not that his peculiar behavioural traits are labelled by Budo - it is simply my interpretation of Budo's observations). And Budo is no ordinary imaginary friend. For a start, at about 10, he is comparatively old and he is staring down the barrel of his own mortality. (Imaginary friends have a short life span because they die when the person who created them stops believing in them). Budo is also the only one who can save Max from a situation that is very real, very scary and that no one could possibly have imagined or anticipated.

In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Green has done something quite remarkable. He has written a book which requires an adult intellect, and adult emotions, to navigate despite presenting it entirely from the perspective of the child within us all. It is a tense psychological thriller, and in parts, it is an absolute page-turner. And he has penned a warm and moving story about life, death, love, loyalty and destiny. This is no block-buster, but if you are anything like me, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend will leave you sadder, happier and itching to talk to someone about the ingenious, the incredible, the invisible Budo.

Other Reviews
Green has done something quite remarkable. He has written a book which requires an adult intellect, and adult emotions, to navigate despite presenting it entirely from the perspective of the child within us all. It is a tense psychological thriller, and in parts, it is an absolute page-turner. And he has penned a warm and moving story about life, death, love, loyalty and destiny. This is no block-buster, but if you are anything like me, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend will leave you sadder, happier and itching to talk to someone about the ingenious, the incredible, the invisible Budo [Booktopia]A heart-warming story of love, loyalty and the power of the imagination . . . It's a tense, psychological thriller that is about love, death and loyalty [Daily News]One-of-a-kind, strong and beautifully written - utterly engrossing . . . This book is unlike any I have ever read: it is simply written, yet profound . . . This is a charming, chilling, warming book - the complete package [Courier Mail]Fresh, poignant and compelling . . . Sad, humorous and very different [Sunday Mail Adelaide]A very touching and uplifting story [Good Reading]

ISBN: 9781847445100
ISBN-10: 1847445101
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 400
Published: 28th February 2012
Dimensions (cm): 21.0 x 13.6  x 3.5
Weight (kg): 0.46