The City of Dreaming Books
core novel 2004 Zamonia
Record
| First published | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  DE |
| First English translation | 2006 |
| Translator | John Brownjohn |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.40 (25,330 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781590201114 |
Synopsis
Optimus Yarnspinner, a bibliophile dinosaur of the Lindworm people, inherits a perfectly written manuscript from his mentor and sets out for Bookholm, the center of the Zamonian book trade, hoping to track down its mysterious, unnamed author. Once there, he is drawn into the city's dangerous literary underworld, a sprawling labyrinth of catacombs beneath the streets that is ultimately run by a manipulative master publisher who controls much of the book trade through subtle hypnosis and outright manipulation of the city's booksellers and readers alike. Optimus's search for the elusive author quickly becomes a fight simply to survive Bookholm's hidden depths and the strange creatures that dwell there.
Where it sits
- Universe: Zamonia
- Series: Zamonia Novels (translated) core; position 3 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Walter Moers
Notes
- From the series record (Zamonia Novels (translated)): Walter Moers's own illustrated satirical-fantasy novels set on the continent of Zamonia, loosely connected rather than a single continuous plot.
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 Zamonia Novels (translated): position 3 of 5: previous Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures (2003) · next The Alchemaster's Apprentice (2007)
Sources
← Zamonia dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.