Synopses & Reviews
It's true, there's a ghost in the Opera House of Ankh Morpork. Sardonic, flamboyant and, well, ghostly, it wears a bone-white Mask and terrorizes the entire company, including the immortal Enrico Basilica, who eats continuously even when he's singing. Mostly spaghetti with tomato sauce.
What better way to flush out a ghost than with a witch? Or even two! And Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg happen to be in Discworld's capital city trying to recruit a third (since three witches make a coven, and two make only an argument).
Enter the Opera's newest diva, the alarmingly fetching Perdita X. Nitt, who has such an astonishing range that she can sing harmony with herself, and is so agreeably large that she hangs out with the elephants in the cellar.
They say that inside every fat women there's a thin woman struggling to get out (or at least dying for chocolate). In Perdita's case, the thin woman is more ambitious, since she would also dearly love to be a witch.
Beginning to get the picture? One would hope so. For this isn't cheese. It's opera, which runs on a Catastrophe Curve. And to further complicate matters, there is a backstage cat named Greebo who occasionally becomes a person just because it's so easy. Not to mention Granny Weatherwax's old friend, Death, whose scythe arm is sore from so much use.
And who has been known to don a Mask...
Synopsis
"A master storyteller." -- A. S. Byatt
The nineteenth installment in Sir Terry Pratchett's beloved Discworld series -- which has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide.
There's a kind of magic in masks. Masks conceal one face, but they reveal another. The one that only comes out in darkness . . .
The Ghost in the bone-white mask who haunts the Ankh-Morpork Opera House was always considered a benign presence--some would even say lucky--until he started killing people. The sudden rash of bizarre backstage deaths now threatens to mar the operatic debut of country girl Perdita X. (nee Agnes) Nitt, she of the ample body and ampler voice.
Perdita's expected to hide in the chorus and sing arias out loud while a more petitely presentable soprano mouths the notes. But at least it's an escape from scheming Nanny Ogg and old Granny Weatherwax back home, who want her to join their witchy ranks. Once Granny sets her mind on something, however, it's difficult--and often hazardous--to dissuade her. And no opera-prowling phantom fiend is going to keep a pair of determined hags down on the farm after they've seen Ankh-Morpork.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Maskerade is the fifth book in the Witches series.
About the Author
Sir Terry Pratchett's many honors include the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Printz Honor, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Britain's Carnegie Medal, the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for lasting contribution to young adult literature, and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. His books have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide. Knighted for his "services to literature," Sir Terry lives in England with his wife and many cats.