Jacob’s father was a farmer, but after their river is dammed and their town is flooded, Jacob takes to fishing the new lake over the town. A village girl falls in love with him, and he with her. A year before they’re to be married, Jacob disappears into the lake, lured underwater by the ghosts who inhabit the sunken village. For fifteen years, his fiancee fishes the lake and searches for her love while Jacob lives, unaging, with the ghosts. It’s only when Lilith, leader of the ghosts, wants to marry Jacob, that he remembers his love for the girl above the lake and can break free to the surface, where his fiancee is able to rescue him – and, at last, to marry her love.

“‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse?”

P.J. Lynch brings his rich and atmospheric art to the well-loved Christmas verse. From the stockings hung by the chimney to the bundle of toys flung over St Nicholas’s back, children will love to pore over the detailed images inside. A book to return to again and again.