The wild things : a novel

Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf.

In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city.

His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer.

Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign.

The "Wild Things" is from Maurice Sendak's visionary classic.

This is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him.

The live-action film, co-written by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, and directed by Jonze, is due this autumn.