'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas and little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. Josh is sure he saw Santa take a shovel to the head and now the seven year old has only one prayer: Please Santa, come back from the dead! Coming to Earth to grant Josh's wish is none other than Archangel Raziel. Unfortunately, he's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos.

Christopher Moore began writing at the age of six and became the oldest known child prodigy when, in his early thirties, he published his first novel. Chris enjoys cheese crackers, acid jazz, and otter scrubbing and lives in an inaccessible island fortress in the Pacific.

Praise for Christopher Moore: 'Wickedly funny' Waterstone's Books Quarterly, 'Christopher Moore is a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word' Carl Hiaasen, 'Humour that seamlessly blends lunacy with larceny ... habit forming zaniness' USA Today, 'Moore is endlessly inventive ... it is a sure winner' Publishers Weekly