A short life of the author
Patrick Ness (born 1971) is one of the most critically acclaimed writers of young adult fiction in the twenty-first century, and one of the few YA authors whose work is taken seriously by adult literary critics without qualification. He is the only author to have won the Carnegie Medal in consecutive years, and A Monster Calls (2011) — completed from an idea by the late Siobhan Dowd — is among the most emotionally devastating novels published for any audience in the last two decades.
Life and Career
Ness was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and grew up in the American Pacific Northwest before moving to London, where he has lived since 1999. He holds both American and British citizenship.
The Chaos Walking trilogy — The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008), The Ask and the Answer (2009), Monsters of Men (2010) — was his breakthrough. Set on a colonized planet where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts (a condition called “the Noise”), the trilogy follows Todd Hewitt, a boy who discovers that everything he has been told about his world is a lie. The series is formally ambitious — the first book’s narration is fractured and misspelled to reflect Todd’s limited education, and each book shifts perspective and raises the moral stakes. Monsters of Men won the Carnegie Medal.
A Monster Calls (2011) was conceived by Siobhan Dowd, a children’s author who died of cancer before she could write it. Ness completed the novel from her original idea: a thirteen-year-old boy whose mother is dying of cancer is visited by a yew tree monster who tells him stories. The book is about grief, denial, and the terrible truths that children know but cannot say. Illustrated by Jim Kay, it won the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal simultaneously — the first book ever to win both.
Subsequent novels — More Than This (2013), The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015), Release (2017), Burn (2020) — have maintained his reputation for genre experimentation and emotional honesty. The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a particularly clever inversion: it follows the ordinary teenagers in a town where supernatural events are happening to other kids — the “chosen ones” whose story runs in chapter headings.
Key Works
- The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008)
- A Monster Calls (2011)
- More Than This (2013)
Collecting Ness
The Knife of Never Letting Go first edition (Walker Books UK, 2008) is the key collectible — $75–$250 signed. A Monster Calls first edition (Walker Books, 2011) signed brings $75–$200; the illustrated edition with Jim Kay’s art is the primary collected form. Ness signs at events and festivals. Walker Books (UK) first editions are generally the true firsts; Candlewick (US) editions follow. Dual Carnegie/Greenaway winners are bibliographic landmarks.