The City of Dreaming Books
SynopsisPlot
The search for the author’s identity takes Yarnspinner to Bookholm—the so-called City of Dreaming Books. On entering its streets, our hero feels as if he has opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop. His nostrils are assailed by clouds of book dust, the stimulating scent of ancient leather, and the tang of printer’s ink. Soon, though, Yarnspinner falls into the clutches of the city’s evil genius, Pfistomel Smyke, who treacherously maroons him in the labyrinthine catacombs underneath the city, where reading books can be genuinely dangerous.
Story
About this book
When the godfather of young poet Hildegunst von Mythenmetz dies, he leaves behind little besides a manuscript. The writing is so flawless that Mythenmetz feels compelled to track down its mysterious origin. His search leads him to Bookholm, a city entirely devoted to books, where the streets smell of old leather, printer's ink, and the faint acid tang of aging paper. Walter Moers sets this story in his invented continent of Zamonia, a place populated by peculiar species and governed by its own strange logic.
Bookholm pulls Mythenmetz deeper into its book-obsessed world. Ruthless book hunters compete for rare bibliophilic treasures, and beneath the city stretches a vast network of catacombs where reading carries real physical danger. A figure known as the Shadow King rules over parts of this underground realm, and small creatures called Booklins roam its passages. After the scheming Pfistomel Smyke betrays him, Mythenmetz finds himself stranded in this subterranean labyrinth.
Moers wrote and illustrated the original German edition, filling it with his own drawings. The novel belongs to a series of books set in Zamonia, each following different characters. Bookholm functions as both a setting and a satire of literary culture, where the love of books becomes obsession, commerce, and sometimes peril.
