Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15-year-old with high-functioning autism.
Christopher likes: dogs, detecting, the colour red, math, murder mystery novels, prime numbers, the police, the fact that the universe is constantly expanding, things in a logical order, orange squash, his pet rat Toby and The Hound of Baskervilles.
Christopher doesn’t like: people touching him, real novels, metaphors, the colours brown and yellow, France, people moving the furniture around, strangers, information overload and holidays.
I liked: Getting to know Christopher, who seemed real. Mark Haddon gave me plenty of details. There were no simple sugar-coated solutions. But it wasn’t depressing either.
1001 books to read before you die (apparently) 
We read this in my book club a while back. I enjoyed it, but as a parent I found it heartbreaking to imagine what Christopher’s father was going through (trying to be close to his son, etc.). It’s a great book though.
My sister has high-functioning autism, and this book was heartbreaking for me as it was alternately hilarious and painful. Very brave book.