“She wanted to return to her dream. Perhaps it was still somewhere there behind her closed eyelids. Perhaps a little of its happiness still clung like gold dust to her lashes. Don't dreams in fairy tales sometimes leave a token behind?”

German author of children's fiction

Cornelia Funke is a German author of children’s fiction, known for fantasy novels for young readers. Born in 1958 in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she first worked as a social worker and later as a book illustrator. She began writing novels in the late 1980s and built her career around stories in which children face hardship and danger. Her books have been translated into several languages, and by 2012 she had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.