Going Postal
core novel 2004 Discworld
Record
| First published | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.42 (139,398 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 377 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780060013134 |
Synopsis
Moist von Lipwig, a con artist caught and sentenced to hang under an assumed name, is spared at the gallows by Lord Vetinari, the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, who gives him a stark choice: take the vacant post of Postmaster General or walk free through a door that turns out to open onto a fatal drop. Moist accepts the job and is confronted with a crumbling Post Office building stuffed to the rafters with decades of undelivered letters, a handful of eccentric surviving employees, and a curious golem parole officer assigned to keep watch over him. As he sets about reviving the derelict postal service, introducing innovations such as postage stamps, and falling for the golem-rights campaigner Adora Belle Dearheart, Moist finds himself pitted against Reacher Gilt, the ruthless chairman of the Grand Trunk clacks company that has come to dominate the city's long-distance communications.
Where it sits
- Universe: Discworld
- Series: Industrial Revolution / Moist von Lipwig core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Pratchett
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Industrial Revolution / Moist von Lipwig: position 1 of 3: next Making Money (2007)
Sources
← Discworld dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.