Optimus Yarnspinner, a young Zamonian writer, inherits very little from his beloved godfather apart from an unpublished short story by an unknown author.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 and make them laugh but 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!

瓦爾特•莫爾斯（Walter Moers）

1957年生於德國門興格拉德巴赫，著名連環畫畫傢和作傢。憑藉《小混蛋》《阿道夫》等連環畫係列聲名大噪後，於1999年齣版以架空世界查莫寜大陸為背景的長篇小說《藍熊船長的13條半命》，引起歐美轟動，成為繼米切爾•恩德之後德國當代極重要的兒童文學作傢。他的查莫寜係列還有《夢書之城》《夢書迷宮》《巫魔師》《來自矮人國的小兄妹》《魯莫與黑暗中的奇跡》等。