The Neverending Story
Bastian Balthazar Bux is a fat, fatherless, daydreaming schoolboy who hates his life and is hiding from bullies in a Munich bookshop when he steals a strange copper-bound volume called The Neverending Story. He climbs to the school attic to read it and discovers that the realm inside the book, Fantastica, is being eaten alive by something called The Nothing. Its only hope is the warrior Atreyu, who is searching for a cure for the failing Childlike Empress. As Bastian reads, the line between his world and the book begins to give way, until the Empress is calling his own name from the page and he is asked to step inside. Michael Ende's 1979 German classic, translated into English by Ralph Manheim in 1983, is one of the great post-Tolkien fantasy novels for young readers and a quietly serious meditation on imagination, language, and the dangers of getting exactly what you wished for.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Neverending Story
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Bastian Balthazar Bux is a chubby, bullied schoolboy who steals a copper-bound book called The Neverending Story from a Munich antique bookshop and reads it in his school's attic. As the country of Fantastica is eaten by the Nothing, Bastian realizes the boy hero Atreyu can hear him.
Yes. Wolfgang Petersen directed a 1984 film adaptation. Michael Ende publicly disowned the film for departing from his book. Two sequels and a TV series followed, none of them well received.
The Neverending Story is widely read by children and adults. Some sections, especially the second half, are darker than typical children's fiction. It is recommended for readers 10 and up.
The Neverending Story was written by Michael Ende, published in 1979 by Penguin (Non-Classics).
The Neverending Story is 424 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Neverending Story takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Neverending Story is a standalone novel by Michael Ende, not part of a series.
The Neverending Story is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.