This tells you three very special things about this story.

The author of The Neverending Story wrote this book in the German language, while living in Italy. If you enjoy the poetry of Max Ehrmann then you should enjoy this book just as much.Purchase here In case this makes the book sounds boring for younger readers, let me assure you that I first read this book when I was 11 and loved it then just as much as now. Open yourself to the story and your let your imagination be skilfully and gently guided. But this shouldn't put you off, because the story is easily one of the best you'll ever read and it could even change the way you look at life as it did for me. This is the only reason I have for withholding a fifth star from my rating, because I personally wish Ende had allowed himself to wax-lyrical every now and then. While some authors - like Thomas Hardy - offer sumptuous, almost visceral descriptions and others offer arduous levels of detail - Dickens, Tolkein - Ende's style is quite plainly-spoken with neither too much nor too little of anything. The pleasure of 'Momo' for me is more in the story than in the storytelling, although it's possible that a little is lost in translation. It's certainly the only book I'll recommend but won't lend for fear of losing it I buy another copy to give them because I'm that confident that they'll love it! This is quite possibly my favourite book. The great climax glues one to the page: walking home with my nose buried in the book I went straight past my own house! - an outcome that would have pleased Momo immensely. Momo has to cope with the disappearance of all her friends and find a way past her loneliness to save them. Warm and gripping throughout, the book has occasional passages of surpassing beauty, such as the imaginary seafaring adventure the children enjoy early on, and Momo's visit to the place where time comes from.

Eventually it falls to Momo alone to confront the men in grey, though she is aided by Professor Hora, the keeper of time, and his prophetic tortoise Cassiopeia. As the grown-ups rush around, their lives and those of their children become increasingly stressful and unhappy. But then the men in grey move into the city, slyly persuading people to save time at all costs, time which the grey men themselves use to sustain their soulless lives. There her almost supernatural skill as a good-natured listener and hedge-therapist endears her to the locals, children and adults both. Momo is a vagrant girl who settles in a ruined amphitheatre on the edge of a city.

Momo michael ende amazon