The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a 2013 novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The work was first published on 18 June 2013 through William Morrow and Company and follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier.Themes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane include the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood".Among other honours, it was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.