"At the start of his school holidays, Danny Delaney is looking forward to a trouble-free summer. But he knows that something terrible has happened when his mother returns home one afternoon with two policemen. There has been an accident. Mrs Delaney has hit a small boy with her car. The boy is in a coma at the local hospital and nobody knows if he will ever wake up. Danny's mother closes herself off, full of guilt. Danny and his father are left to pick up the pieces of their broken family. John Boyne tells the story from the point of view of a twelve-year-old boy. The Dare is about how one moment can change a family forever." - back cover.