In the wake of the breakout successes of Walter Moers’ 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, andThe City of Dreaming Books, Moers is back with this fourth book, the tumultuous tale of a little boy and his encounter with Death. Moers bases his utterly delightful story on twenty-one woodcuts by the inimitable Gustave Doré, the most successful illustrator of the nineteenth century.
In a world between legend and dream, A Wild Ride through the Night describes the exhilarating and comic adventures of twelve-year-old Gustave, a boy who aspires to one day be a great artist. When a disaster at sea puts Gustave in the uncompromising hands of Death, he has the choice to give up the ghost or take on a series of six impossible tasks. Gustave embarks on a strange and perilous journey during which he must save a princess from an angry dragon, pull a tooth from the Most Monstrous of All Monsters, fly over the moon, and even, somehow, meet his own self. Will Gustave’s creativity and imagination be able to save him from his fate?
Walter Moers was born in 1957 and is a writer, cartoonist, painter, and sculptor. The world of Zamonia that he created is currently being adapted for the screen. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.
John Brownjohn, originally a classicist who from the age of eight studied ancient Greek as well as Latin, won a major scholarship to Oxford, from which he graduated with honors. He transitioned to a career as a literary translator, earning critical acclaim and many British and American awards. In addition to translating nearly two hundred books, he has produced English versions of many German and French screenplays and cowritten several feature films with Roman Polanski.
Bronson Pinchot is an Earphones and Audie Award–winning narrator and Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010.