"A bluebear has twenty-seven lives. I shall recount thirteen and a half of them in this book but keep quiet about the rest," says the narrator of Walter Moers's epic adventure. "What about the Minipirates? What about the Hobgoblins, the Spiderwitch, the Babbling Billows, the Troglotroll, the Mountain Maggot...Mine is a tale of mortal danger and eternal love, of hair's breadth, last-minute escapes." Welcome to the fantastic world of Zamonia, populated...

The author of "13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" transports readers to a magical world. Optimus Yarnspinner finds himself marooned in the subterranean world of Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books, where reading can be dangerous, and ruthless Bookhunters fight to the death.

Zamonia's greatest writer investigates a mystery in a shadowy book metropolis in this epic adventure by the author of The Alchemaster's Apprentice. It has been more than two hundred years since Bookholm was destroyed by a devastating fire, as told in Moers's The City of Dreaming Books. Hildegunst von Mythenmetz, hailed as Zamonia's greatest writer, is on vacation in Lindworm Castle when a disturbing message reaches him, and he must return to Bookholm...