The book of dreams

A story of hope, love, and courage amidst ups and downs. From the author of The Magic Bookshop in Paris .

The Book of Dreams tells the story of Breton ex-war reporter Henri Skinner, who, on his way to school for his previously unknown teenage son, is run over. Rushed to the hospital, Henri hovers in a coma in a dream world, reliving critical moments from his past and the secret that has guided his lifelong default attitude: running away.

After the accident, Sam—a thirteen-year-old synesthetic prodigy (a member of Mensa)—spends hours every day at his father's bedside in the ICU, hoping for a miracle. It's at the hospital that he meets Eddie Tomlin, Henri's ex-girlfriend who discovers she's been designated by Henri in his living will as the person responsible for making medical decisions while he's unconscious, as well as a twelve-year-old ballerina named Madelyn Zeidler, also in a coma and the sole survivor of the car accident that killed her Oxford family. As these four very different beings struggle—for hope, for patience, for life—they end up inextricably bound together, facing together the overwhelming forces of loss and first love.

A truly human story, starring extremely captivating characters, which examines what we consider serious and painful in contrast to what we see as light and trivial, The Book of Dreams is a delicate contemplation of memory, transience and empathy, questioning with lightness and seriousness what each of us would see as truly relevant in life when faced with death.

After the resounding success of The Magic Bookshop in Paris and The Wonderful French Bistro , in this new book Nina George explores the mysterious world between life and death, reality and dreams, and those brief moments when doors are opened to completely different paths.