A Wild Ride Through The Night

By the author of the internationally bestselling The 131/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear

More monsters than a Hogwarts menagerie, sufficient bizarre encounters to rival Gulliver's Travels - a sparkling treasure trove

Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He has refused to be photographed ever since his comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf were published, the latter leading him to be declared persona non grata by the political right in Germany. The 13- Lives of Captain Bluebear was published to superb reviews and has sold 250,000 hardback copies in Germany. Walter Moers lives in Hamburg.

Using twenty-one drawings from the work of Gustave Dor-, the most successful illustrator of the 19th century, Walter Moers has created a wondrous and utterly delightful tale. In a world between legend and dream, in a time between childhood and adulthood, A Wild Ride Through the Night describes the exhilarating and comic adventures of 12-year-old Gustave, a boy who aspires one day to be a great artist. But before he can achieve this, Gustave must first tackle Mysterious Giants and a Siamese Twins Tornado; he also finds himself encountering the Greatest Monster of All, freeing a maiden from the claws of a dragon, riding through a forest full of ghosts, navigating a Galactic Gully and meeting a dream princess, a talking horse, scantily-clad Amazons and even his own self. Having made a wager with death for nothing less than his life and his soul, he must travel from the earth to the moon and back in a single night.

The Alchemaster's Apprentice

The latest fantastical tale from the author of the international bestseller The 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear.

This follows the pattern familiar to Moers fans of old... There are short stories galore hidden here... for me they're top notch

Another fascinating fantasy... Moers has created an absolutely charming world populated by lovable characters, and the well-paced stories he tells about it are informed by fairy-tale morality

Elegantly written...Secrets are revealed, old bodies unearthed and strange allies made in this entrancing tale of darkness, determined survival and incredibly luxurious cuisine

Moers' creative mind is like J.K. Rowling's on ecstasy

Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He is the creator of the comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf and the author of the cult bestseller The 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo, A Wild Ride Through The Night and The City of Dreaming Books. He lives in Hamburg.

Malaisea, the unhealthiest town in the whole of Zamonia, is home to Echo the Crat, a multi-talented creature resembling a cat in appearance but capable of speaking any language under the sun, human or animal. When his mistress dies, Echo finds himself out on the street. Dying of starvation, he is compelled to sign a contract with Ghoolion the Alchemaster, Malaisea's evil alchemist-in-chief. 
 
This fateful document gives Ghoolion the right to kill Echo at the next full moon and render him down for his fat, with which he hopes to brew an alchemical concoction that will make him immortal. In return, he promises to regale the little Crat with the most exquisite gastronomic delicacies until his time is up. But Ghoolion has reckoned without Echo's talent for survival and his ability to make new friends. These include the Leathermice, the Cogitating Eggs, the Golden Squirrel, the Cooked Ghost, Theodore T. Theodore the one-eyed Tuwituwu, and, above all, Izanuela Anazazi, the last Uggly in Malaisea. 
 
Walter Moers's magnificent translation of Optimus Yarnspinner's novel introduces us to yet another of Zamonia's hotbeds of adventure: Malaisea, a place where sick is healthy, up is down, right is wrong, and Ghoolion the Alchemaster reigns supreme - until Echo crosses his path.

The City Of Dreaming Books

'[A] 'crossover' blockbuster about the dark magic of reading' - Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Moers' creative mind is like J. K. Rowling's on Ecstasy

A yarn of drollery, deeper meaning and sheer lunacy

Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He is the creator of the comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf and the author of the cult bestseller The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and A Wild Ride Through The Night. He lives in Hamburg.

Optimus Yarnspinner, a young Zamonian writer, inherits very little from his beloved godfather apart from an unpublished short story by an unknown author. This manuscript proves to be such a superb piece of writing that he can't resist the temptation to investigate the mystery surrounding the author's identity. The trail takes him to the City of Dreaming Books. 
 
After falling under the spell of this book-obsessed metropolis; Yarnspinner also falls into the clutches of its evil genius, Pfistomel Smyke, who treacherously maroons him in the city's labyrinthine catacombs. He finds himself in a subterranean world where reading books can be genuinely dangerous, where ruthless Bookhunters fight to the death for literary gems and the mysterious Shadow King rules a murky realm populated by Booklings, one-eyed beings whose vast library includes live books equipped with teeth and claws. 
 
Walter Moers transports us to a magical world where reading is still a genuine adventure, where books can not only entertain people but also drive them insane or even kill them. Only those intrepid souls who are prepared to join Optimus Yarnspinner on his perilous journey should read this book. We wish the rest of you a long, safe, unutterably dull and boring life!

Rumo

'Resembles a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Clive Barker with something of the yarn spinning facility of each' Guardian

Moers' writing is alluring, to say the least. He writes with as much detail as he draws, and his vivid imagination is matched by his ability to pace a story and create interesting characters

Moers' drawings...are fantastic, in both definitions of the word, but what's  truly appealing is the world that he creates in this marvelous tale of  adventure and self-discovery... It's less a text and more an imagination on paper

Parodic and sincere, slapstick  and heart-tugging by turns, Moers's novel has fresh things to say on  the nature of heroism and nobility

Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He is the creator of the comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf and his novels include the cult bestseller The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, The City of Dreaming Books, The Alchemaster's Apprentice and The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books. He lives in Hamburg.

Astonishingly inventive, amusing and engrossing, Rumo is a captivating story from the unique imagination of Walter Moers. Rumo is a little Wolperting who will one day become the greatest hero in the history of Zamonia. Armed with Dandelion, his talking sword, he fights his way across Overworld and Netherworld, two very different worlds chock-full of adventures, dangers, and unforgettable characters: including Rala, the beautiful girl Wolperting who cultivates a hazardous relationship with death; General Ticktock, the evil commander of the Copper Killers; Ushan DeLucca, the finest and most weather-sensitive swordsman in Zamonia; Professor Abdullah Nightingale, inventor of the Chest-of-Drawers Oracle; and, worse luck, the deadly Metal Maiden.

The 13.5 Lives Of Captain Bluebear

'Marvellously fantastical' - Sunday Express

Moers' creative mind is like J. K. Rowling on ecstasy

Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He is the creator of the comic strips The Little Asshole and Adolf and his novels include The 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear, The City of Dreaming Books and The Alchemaster's Apprentice. He lives in Hamburg.

A delightfully illustrated cult novel, literary satire and epic adventure. 
 
'Within the first 15 pages I was carried away by the sheer craziness of it all. Some Minipirates find a baby bear with blue fur inside a walnut shell floating on the ocean towards a giant whirlpool. They rescue him and teach him about knots and waves, and that a good white lie is often considerably more exciting than the truth. Then, when he outgrows their ship to such an extent that he is in danger of sinking it, they abandon him on an island with a bottle of seaweed juice and a loaf of seaweed bread. Thus Bluebear comes to the end of his first life and embarks on his second. By the end of the book, he has expended exactly half of his 27 lives. Again and again, Moers confounds our expectations as the narrative twists and turns, travels backwards and forwards in time. Part science fiction, part fairy tale, part myth, part epic, the book is a satire on all these genres and so constantly satirises itself. Very amusing' - Daily Telegraph

Walter Moers

John Brownjohn

It’s a fun read, packed with Moers’s typical wordplay, not to mention his lovingly detailed illustrations…catnip for anyone with a passion for languages

Moers fans will find everything they love: strange lifeforms, ample digressions, learned allusions, a plethora of anagrams, and the disturbing illustrations that are just as fine as they are humorous

Yarnspinner is a popstar, the Michael Jackson of the printed word: in short, a hero

Over two hundred years ago Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books, was destroyed by a catastrophic firestorm. Optimus Yarnspinner, who witnessed this disaster, has since become Zamonia's greatest writer and is resting on his laurels at Lindworm Castle. Spoilt by his monumental success and basking in adulation, he one day receives a disturbing message that finally reinvests his life with meaning: a cryptic missive that lures him back to Bookholm. 
 
Rebuilt on a magnificent scale, the city is once more a vibrant literary metropolis and Mecca of the book trade teeming with book fanatics of all kinds. On the track of the mysterious letter that brought him there, Yarnspinner has scarcely set foot in the city before he falls prey to its spirit of adventure. He is reunited with old friends like Inazia Anazazi the Uggly and Ahmed ben Kibitzer the Nocturnomath, but he also encounters the city's new marvels, which include the mysterious Biblionauts, the warring Puppetists, and the city's latest craze, the Invisible Theatre. 
 
Yarnspinner strays ever deeper into the Labyrinth of Dreaming Books, which seems to wield a strange power over Bookholm's destinies. He is eventually drawn into an irresistible maelstrom of events far more sensational than any of the adventures he has previously embarked upon.

The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Walter Moers

Praise for The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books

It’s a fun read, packed with Moers’s typical wordplay, not to mention his lovingly detailed illustrations…catnip for anyone with a passion for languages

Moers fans will find everything they love: strange lifeforms, ample digressions, learned allusions, a plethora of anagrams, and the disturbing illustrations that are just as fine as they are humorous

Yarnspinner is a popstar, the Michael Jackson of the printed word: in short, a hero

It’s a fun read, packed with Moers’s typical wordplay, not to mention his lovingly detailed illustrations…catnip for anyone with a passion for languages

Moers fans will find everything they love: strange lifeforms, ample digressions, learned allusions, a plethora of anagrams, and the disturbing illustrations that are just as fine as they are humorous

Yarnspinner is a popstar, the Michael Jackson of the printed word: in short, a hero

It’s a fun read, packed with Moers’s typical wordplay, not to mention his lovingly detailed illustrations…catnip for anyone with a passion for languages

Moers fans will find everything they love: strange lifeforms, ample digressions, learned allusions, a plethora of anagrams, and the disturbing illustrations that are just as fine as they are humorous

Yarnspinner is a popstar, the Michael Jackson of the printed word: in short, a hero

Books by Walter Moers

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter