Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2019
400 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Warm, wise, and magical - the latest novel by the bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop and The Little French Bistro is an astonishing exploration of the thresholds between life and death.
Henri Skinner is a hardened ex-war reporter on the run from his past. On his way to see his son, Sam, for the first time in years, Henri steps into the road without looking and collides with oncoming traffic. He is rushed to a nearby hospital where he floats, comatose, between dreams, reliving the fairytales of his childhood and the secrets that made him run away in the first place.
After the accident, Sam - a thirteen-year old synesthete with an IQ of 144 and an appetite for science fiction - waits by his father's bedside every day. There he meets Eddie Tomlin, a woman forced to confront her love for Henri after all these years, and twelve-year old Madelyn Zeidler, a coma patient like Henri and the sole survivor of a traffic accident that killed her family. As these four very different individuals fight - for hope, for patience, for life - they are bound together inextricably, facing the ravages of loss and first love side by side.
A revelatory, urgently human story that examines what we consider serious and painful alongside light and whimsy, The Book of Dreams is a tender meditation on memory, liminality, and empathy, asking with grace and gravitas what we will truly find meaningful in our lives once we are gone.
"Captivating… This exploration of unfinished relationships has a haunting, evocative quality, and is a perfect, conversation-starting selection for book groups." - Publishers Weekly
"An empathetic and emotionally stunning novel. Never preachy or maudlin, this deep dive into some of life's most haunting questions will appeal to fans of Isabel Allende and Mary Simses." - Booklist
"An effective exploration of connections that transcend physical boundaries…a poignant story about longing, nostalgia, and the pain of missed opportunities." - Kirkus
This information about The Book of Dreams was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nina George is the author of the bestselling international phenomenon The Little Paris Bookshop, as well as numerous other books that have been published around the world. She also works as a journalist, and advocate for writer and women's rights. She lives with her husband in Berlin and Brittany, France.
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