The year is 1949, the city London. Dennis Knuckleyard is a hapless eighteen-year-old who works and lives in a second-hand bookstore. One day, on an errand to retrieve rare books, Dennis discovers that one of them does not exist. It is a fictitious book, yet it is physically there in his hands nonetheless. How? It comes from the Great When, a dark and magical version of the city that is beyond time. There, epochs blend and realities and unrealities blur. If Dennis does not take this book back to the other London, he will be killed. So begins a journey delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers, many of whom have their own nefarious intentions. Soon Dennis finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons.

''I was in the wrong London. It was horrible. I''d fallen in by accident, and it was all alive and trying to eat me.'' The year 1949, the city London. Hapless second-hand bookseller Dennis stumbles through a city still shaking off the war. While out procuring inventory, Dennis''s life changes forever when he chances upon a novel that shouldn''t exist; an entirely fictional book from inside another novel. The book hails from The Great When, a magical shadow-London, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts like Crime, Poetry and Riot are incarnated as mystical beings that stalk the streets. This discovery brings terrible danger, as the book''s presence leaves the doorway open between the two Londons, and The Great When must remain a secret. Soon Dennis finds himself in the city''s occult underbelly, negotiating sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers - some imaginary, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. If Dennis cannot return the book and close the gate, he risks dire repercussions... Neither London will ever be the same again. History collides with magic in The Great When . Dark, ridiculous, propulsive, Sunday Times bestseller Alan Moore opens the gates to capital metafictional chaos in the genre-busting first instalment of the Long London series. ''It does what fantasy does best which is show us something beyond our experience. this shows us something absolutely new'' Susanna Clarke ''A breathless time-travelling classic. Savage, humane, comic, terrifying'' Iain Sinclair ''Brilliant and so powerfully imaginative'' Adam Curtis ''A weird book and a complete joy'' Mariana Enriquez ''A masterful step from one of our very best, uncompromising storytellers; Moore peels back the layers of London and reveals not only the history we know, but the histories that could have been, and, underneath it all, both the dark and beautiful truths about who we are as a nation.'' Heather Parry ...

Autorentext
Alan Moore is an English writer widely regarded as the most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include From Hell, Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He is also the author of Voice of the Fire, Jerusalem, the short story collection Illuminations, and also The Great When the first in the five-book Long London series. Alan Moore was born in Northampton, and has lived there ever since.

Klappentext

A propulsive tour through a fantastical London, where history and myth collide, murder stalks the streets and the mundane becomes very magical indeed...

The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital is Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen-year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?

Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks bizarre and disastrous repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).

So begins a journey delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers - some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever.

Thrilling, lyrical and sparkling with dark humour, The Great When is the first book in a new series by Sunday Times-bestseller and icon, Alan Moore.

'A breathless time-travelling classic. Savage, humane, comic, terrifying' Iain Sinclair

?Brilliant and so powerfully imaginative' Adam Curtis

'A weird book and a complete joy' Mariana Enríquez

?A masterful step from one of our very best, uncompromising storytellers; Moore peels back the layers of London and reveals not only the history we know, but the histories that could have been, and, underneath it all, both the dark and beautiful truths about who we are as a nation.' Heather Parry