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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Fforde pours his brilliant imagination into every corner of this world’ Daily Mail
‘Fforde keeps the puns and neologisms coming thick and fast while exploring every facet of his novel’s intriguing premise’ Financial Times

Every Winter, the human population hibernates.

During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, and devoid of human activity.

Well, not quite.

Your name is Charlie Worthing and it’s your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses.

You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artefact borne of the sleeping mind.

When the dreams start to kill people, it’s unsettling.

When you get the dreams too, it’s weird.

When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.

But teasing truth from Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting, ensure you aren’t eaten by Nightwalkers whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food, and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.

But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you’ll be fine.

Praise for Jasper Fforde:

‘Forget all the rules of time, space and reality; just sit back and enjoy the adventure’ Telegraph

‘True literary comic genius’ Sunday Express

‘Ingenious’ Terry Pratchett

Publisher Review

Fforde keeps the puns and neologisms coming thick and fast while exploring every facet of his novel's intriguing premise * Financial Times * I love to dive into Jasper Fforde's books. They're wildly imaginative but he makes you believe every word. Where else can you encounter a ditzy dodo, a deadly chimera and a straight-as-an-arrow detective investigating what really happened to Humpty Dumpty? Great stuff. -- David Baldacci No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns * The Times * 'Fforde's books are more than just an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted. They have empathetic heroes and heroines who nearly make terrible mistakes and suitably dastardly villains who do. They also have more twists and turns than Christie, and are embellished with the rich details of Dickens or Pratchett * Independent * Forget all the rules of time, space and reality; just sit back and enjoy the adventure. * Telegraph * Fans of the late Douglas Adams, or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde * Herald * Reading a Fforde novel feels like taking off on a magic carpet, only to be picked up by another and another and taken on new flights of fantasy . . . When the plot is thundering along, peppered with jokes, lively dialogue and silly names . . . you just sit back and enjoy the ride. * Scotsman * Praise for Jasper Fforde * : * a zany send-up of all things British * Guardian * Fans of Jasper Fforde's unique blend of comic dystopia and quirky British cosiness will not be disappointed with his first novel in six years * Guardian * Jasper Fforde lunacy at its best * Daily Express * the thriller aspect is propulsive * Times * Make(s) us look at our world anew * SFX Magazine * It's been worth the wait * Oxford Mail * The master of the alternative universe * Press Association * Endlessly imaginative and distinctively quirky, this is entertaining fun * Mail on Sunday * Fforde pours his brilliant imagination into every corner of this world * Daily Mail * Praise for Early Riser * : *