Hogfather

Pratchett's writing is a constant delight. No one mixes the fantastical and mundane to better comic effect or offers sharper insights into the absurdities of human endeavour. Daily Mail

When the guy in the red suit goes missing the night before the Discworld's favourite holiday, it falls on Death to take up the sleigh reigns in this wonderfully irreverent holiday fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett.

Very few things are held sacred in the twisted, corrupt, heartless—and oddly familiar—universe of the Discworld, but the Hogfather is one of them. Each year at this most joyous of times, Hogswatchnight, the jolly, red-suited Hogfather hops into his hog-drawn sleigh. But this year, the old gift giver has vanished without a trace.

Could it be that belief in the Hogfather is dangerously low among the cynical citizens of the Discworld, a place where superstition makes things work? That's why Death decides to stand in. But it's just not right to find a seven-foot skeleton creeping down your chimney bellowing "ho, ho, ho."

On this last night of the year, as the time is turning, it's up to levelheaded Susan, gothic governess and Death's granddaughter, to sort everything out by morning—or there won't be a morning. Ever again . . .

The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Hogfather is the fourth book in the Death series. The full collection includes:

• Mort
• Reaper Man
• Soul Music
• Hogfather
• Thief of Time