The next novel from Nina George, author of the blockbuster bestsellers The Little Paris Bookshop and The Little French Bistro, about the spaces between lives and realities and loves both lost and coming home
When Henri ends up in a coma after rescuing a young girl from the Thames, his ex-girlfriend, Eddie, discovers that she is listed as Henri’s next-of-kin in his living will. While Henri lies in a hospital bed, he fitfully revisits the boyhood he spent with his beloved grandfather, who fed him a steady diet of Breton fish and fairy tales.
Meanwhile, Sam, Henri’s sensitive teenage son with whom Henri never had a relationship--Henri was in love with his mother, but too afraid of love to make the relationship work--has never seen his father alive, other than in Henri’s reportages or the video of him heroically saving a girl from drowning. Yet, Sam has a more profound connection with his father than most children of his age. Sam and Eddie, each previously unaware of the other, slowly begin to carve out an unexpected and powerful friendship. But when Sam is on his way to meet his father for the first time, tragedy strikes.
Full of rich, captivating characters, and in placing the serious questions of life and death alongside a wonderful and engrossing story, The Book of Dreams asks with grace and gravitas what we will truly find meaningful in our lives after we are gone.
When Henri ends up in a coma after rescuing a young girl from the Thames, his ex-girlfriend, Eddie, discovers that she is listed as Henri’s next-of-kin in his living will. While Henri lies in a hospital bed, he fitfully revisits the boyhood he spent with his beloved grandfather, who fed him a steady diet of Breton fish and fairy tales.
Meanwhile, Sam, Henri’s sensitive teenage son with whom Henri never had a relationship--Henri was in love with his mother, but too afraid of love to make the relationship work--has never seen his father alive, other than in Henri’s reportages or the video of him heroically saving a girl from drowning. Yet, Sam has a more profound connection with his father than most children of his age. Sam and Eddie, each previously unaware of the other, slowly begin to carve out an unexpected and powerful friendship. But when Sam is on his way to meet his father for the first time, tragedy strikes.
Full of rich, captivating characters, and in placing the serious questions of life and death alongside a wonderful and engrossing story, The Book of Dreams asks with grace and gravitas what we will truly find meaningful in our lives after we are gone.