A Wild Ride Through the Night

Original title: Wilde Reise durch die Nacht. Translated into English in 2003.

In the wake of the breakout successes of Walter Moers's The 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, and The 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 his twelve-year-old protagonist Gustave, a boy who aspires one day to 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?