Timeless. That's the word for fiction of this sort. How else can a story originally published in German in 1994 Eand now translated into English for the first time Emake for such great reading? Cynics might say that it's got to do with that Santa character Estories about him never go wrong, do they? But that's just it: Everyone knows about the fat guy in red who visits at Christmas. How can a tired old myth be revived so that it still sparkles like freshly fallen snow on Christmas morning?
For starters, did anyone say "fat guy in red?" Funke's Santa is young, thin and laughs, well, a little more like the rest of us. And he doesn't stand around outside glitzy department stores urging you to buy more and spend more. In fact, he's the last real Santa, the only one who still knows that there's more to Christmas spirit than handing your credit card to the cashier. When his airborne sleigh gets driven to Earth by a storm and his reindeer bolts off, Santa finds himself in a narrow street called Misty Close Ewith two panic-stricken angels, a bunch of angry elves and the wintry cold for company.
And while Niklas Goodfellow Efor that's what our unlikely Santa is called Eis waiting for his reindeer to return, he chances to make friends with two rather unhappy children, Ben and Charlotte. Ben's relationship with his parents is going seriously downhill; and Charlotte has been having some terrible dreams, though it is never quite clear why.