Patrick Ness, who is American by birth, spent just a year in Oxford, teaching creative writing at the university’s Department of Continuing Education. Perhaps he would have spent more time here if he hadn’t begun working on his novel for young adults, The Knife of Never Letting Go, which is one of seven in the running for Britain’s top children’s literature prize, the Carnegie Medal.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, which has already won the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize, is an energetic book, simply bursting with ideas about adolescence and free will, which will challenge adults too.

The Knife of Never Letting Go traces the journey of Todd Hewitt when he and his talking dog Manchee are forced to flee the stifling male-only environs of Prentisstown, where the thoughts of each inhabitant — man and beast — give out a never-ending swell of Noise.

Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts — there’s no hiding from them, no secrets, no privacy. The Noise invades everything. It’s no good plugging your ears. The Noise won’t go away, because that’s how things are at Prentisstown.

Just one month before his 13th birthday, which will make him a man, Todd and his talking dog Manchee unexpectedly stumble on a spot of complete silence.

Having lived his entire life in a town where the constant thoughts of men and things bombard his thoughts, the boy and his dog are drawn towards this unbelievable place. The emptiness of it touches his chest, pulling at him until it reduces him to tears.

The source of this silence is a girl named Viola, who eventually joins him on his journey.

It is indeed a quite remarkable story, and the first of a trilogy, which is why there is no conclusion when you reach the last page – just a terrifying cliffhanger.

Patrick explained that it started as an idea about information overload.

“We’re constantly surrounded by information – Internet, emails, text, the man using his mobile on the train, etc – whether we want to be or not. I often find it overwhelming. Sometimes it’s so incredibly loud that it’s impossible to make sense of it,” he said.

The more Patrick thought of the way noise affects us all now, the more he began to wonder what would happen if we really couldn’t escape the noise.

“What if information never, ever stopped? That gave me the idea for The Noise and an intelligent thoughtful young man buckling under the weight of it,” said Patrick, who knew there would come a day when the youngster would have no choice but to run.

Because such a boy needs a companion, he added Manchee, the talking dog. But don’t be fooled, Manchee is far removed from the tail-wagging canines with sloppy grins that star in most children’s books. Manchee’s conversation may be monosyllabic, but this feisty little dog, which the 12-year-old hero receives very reluctantly as a birthday gift, has guts.

Apparently, Patrick modelled him on a boxer dog that his parents had when he was a child. “That boxer had personality, so Manchee was easy to write up once I decided to give Todd a travelling companion,” he said.

This is Patrick’s first book written especially for teenagers. “I began by asking myself what kind of book I would have liked to have read when I was young, then went from there.”

Patrick admits it’s a tough balance with teenagers. He remembers that he didn’t like any book that taught him a lesson, or ended up with the bully and the hero being good friends.

“There are harsh realities out there – bad things happen. You have to tell young people the truth or they won’t trust you. The writer has to be as truthful as possible, but with the possibilities of hope.”

This is one of the many pieces of advice Patrick gave his students while he was at Oxford. He also advised his students not to insult a young person’s intelligence, as they will follow you to all the places you take them if you give them the truth.

Viola was not added to the tale as a romantic extra. He said: “Todd and Viola’s relationship was the real thing, despite their differences. She’s the first person he has ever trusted. They understand each other, although they are different.

“It’s in their relationship that hope lies – this is not a crush. He and she have a real connection.”

Summing up The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick says it’s a novel about the impossible choices that face us all as we grow up. He has already finished book two, which comes out in March, and is now working on the final book in the trilogy.

The Carnegie winner will be announced on Thursday, June 25, and the shortlist also includes the late Oxford writer Sioban Dowd. The Knife of Never Letting Go is published by Walker Books, £12.99.