20190321_213332.jpgToday I have a review of the newest book by Nina George, The Book of Dreams, available from Crown Publishing on April 9, 2019/tomorrow!

My Thoughts:

I’m a fan of Nina George’s Little Paris Bookshop, and I noticed right away that her trademark warmth is imbued on every page of The Book of Dreams. 

Henri Skinner, one of our main characters, is a former war reporter.  He’s rough around the edges, and the war has shaped him. He’s going to visit his son, Sam, who he doesn’t really know. 

While literally on his way to see his son, he is injured and rushed to the hospital. While there, he is comatose and vividly dreaming about the secrets of his past. 

Sam, Henri’s son, is a gifted thirteen-year-old, and he sits by Henri every day at the hospital. It’s there that Eddie Tomlin arrives, a woman who has loved Henri for many years. Also at the hospital is Madelyn, a twelve-year-old who is also in a coma. She has survived an accident that killed every member of her family. 

Each character is dreaming of hope and fighting for life in their own way, and together, they are bonded by these wistful wants. 

Gosh, The Book of Dreams gave me so much to think about. First, it had me feeling deeply for its characters, and then it transferred to real life, as the story became so earnest, it felt real and luminescent. 

The Book of Dreams is deeply emotional and soaringly rewarding. I cried until I felt that ache in my chest. I had the hardest time letting go of this story and turning the last page. There is sadness, loss, and tragedy here, as is hope. 

Lyrical writing, deep meaning, heartbreaking, powerful, and profound, The Book of Dreams taught me about “just being” versus “truly living” among many other life lessons, and I am ever so grateful this book was in my hands and is now in my heart. 

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own. 

Synopsis:

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.

Have you read The Book of Dreams, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR