Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A story about making peace with the past in order to find a future.
The Book of Dreams
What you need to know before your trail
Henri is about to meet his teenage son, Sam, for the first time. But as Henri crosses Hammersmith Bridge, an accident happens. Sam reads about it in the newspaper – his father is a hero, now in a coma in hospital. So their first meeting takes place there, alongside the hospital’s neurologist, whom the staff name God and is the first person to treat Sam as an equal in intelligence. And that’s because Sam, due to a condition called synaesthesia, can sense things the doctors can’t – he can see the colours of his father’s thoughts and dreams, and many relationships build from this.
This beautiful novel is warm, wise, wry look at what love means. It’s about fathers and sons, friendship and family, life, death and making peace with the past in order to find a future.
Travel Guide
Travel to London and Oxford BookTrail style
This is not a novel for locations as such although London is where the novel starts and Oxford where much of it takes place. The cities form a backdrop to the main story of love and hope. Two iconic locations do stand out though:
In London – The Hammersmith bridge. This might be where the accident takes place but it’s also described as an area of peace and calm:
Everyting takes on greater clarity as I step through the arch onto Hammersmith Bridge: the warmth of the sun, the waves sparkling and winking as if the summer were already beaming at us, and the delicate, sweet scent of the trees.
I can already spy the pink blossom of the Japanese cherry trees, reaching out toward the honey-colored sun, along the riverbank by St Paul’s School”
Oxford
The story of Maddie moves on to here. It would be great to read this novel in The Eagle and Child pub. It has great literary heritage as it is known for being the watering hole of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Book of Dreams
Destination: London Author/guide: Nina George Departure Time: 2000s
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