Early Riser (Trade Paperback) [Fforde, Jasper]

The ‚  New York Times ‚  bestselling standalone novel from Jasper Fforde

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Every Winter, the human population hibernates.

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

Well, not ‚  quite ‚  .

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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.

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

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

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

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

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But teasing truth from the 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.

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