I tried to finish this, but could not. The whole premise was odd, and I did not find the characters to be compelling. I struggled to keep some of the minor characters straight, and found the multiple narrators disruptive to the narrative. Perhaps there was a point to this story, but I lost interest after reading about 100 pages.

What a gorgeous book. So beautiful and well written about the gray zone of dreams between life and death. This book haunted me for days after I read it. So fun.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Nina George completes her “cycle of mortality novels” and leaves her readers with a sense of joy and sadness. Her books, although sad and joyful at the same time, are always a delight to read. Her characters are so real to the reader - you feel as though you’re a part of the story. She proves once again “there’s more between life & death than we can tell from here,”

Everyone ponders life and death. The Book of Dreams explores the world between. Beautifully written, and tragically brilliant. Nina George takes us on a journey anyone who has experienced great love and great loss will relate to and understand. It makes a lasing impression-and gives voice to those who wonder if this is all there is. Having read it while mourning the loss of my mother, I can't say it was comforting, but then death is never comfortable. The Book of Dreams gives voice to the hope that love is enough to carry us through and love transcends all, even death.

Second chances, making things right, and doing what’s right are all part of George’s magical story featuring a small cast of fascinating characters. Ex-war reporter Henri Skinner who while en route to see his son Sam for the first time in years is hit by a car and left comatose. Sam, a gifted and brilliant 13-year-old, is armed with the knowledge that Henri was trying to get to him and spends hours at the hospital where he meets Henri’s ex and medical guardian, Eddie Tomlin, and a comatose, orphaned young dancer, Madelyn Zeidler. It’s a wonderful mix of beginnings and endings, and a magical reflection on what’s important in life.

I received this book "The Book of Dreams" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. This was a very weird book. Sorry to say that I kinda skimmed it because it didn't hold my interest.

I had trouble at first and felt like the sentence structure got in the way of the details in establishing the participants. I kept at it and, about a third of the way through, a switch clicked on and I just flowed with the story. I have been recommending this to readers at my library and telling them to place a hold when Spring comes.

If I weren't already a confirmed fan of Nina George, this book would make me one!

I hardly know where to start reviewing The Book of Dreams, because, for me, so much of the book is felt and experienced, rather than read.

As I have come to expect from Nina George, the characters are beautifully drawn, they are real and speak to you not as "characters" but as people living real lives. Each person exists in their own space and none are superfluous to the story; even inanimate objects take on life. Despite the subject matter, the point somewhere between life and death, this is not a sad book; rather it is joyous and even downright funny in places.

Until reading Nina's statement "The Book of Dreams completes my cycle of novels about mortality." I hadn't thought of "The Little Paris Bookshop", "The Little Breton Bistro" and "The Book of Dreams" as being related and yet in retrospect of course they are. Although it is not necessary to read all three to enjoy any of them, I'm glad this is how I read them.

Can't wait for the next cycle of titles about living from the very talented storyteller, Nina George.

Oh, my! Well, this one kept me up most of the night. There is a point where you just have to keep going because you are so invested in the characters and what’s to become of them. This author knows how to write about the heavy stuff in life. Readers who have dealt with major life altering situations (like me) will relate to the atmosphere of life’s choices. It definitely has a “What Dreams May Come” vibe. The way the author weaves the lives of the characters who are possibly near death and their loved ones who wait for miracles is just plain amazing. I haven’t read anything lately that has touched me quite like this story! Read it!!!

The beginning for me was a little clunkly for me, I thought it might be a translation issue that had be weary on finishing it but, once I settled into the novel it really all came together. I really enjoyed the different perspectives as well as the observations George makes about humanity.

Nina George does it again with The Book of Dreams. This lyrical book shares three perspectives to pull this engaging book together.

When was the last time that you read a book and found that tears were rolling down your cheeks? For me, it has been quite a while but I cried over this one.

When I told my husband about this novel, he said that it must have been depressing. I replied that it was not depressing but that it was sad. Sadness is an essential piece of this book and yet to me it was a wonderful read and one that I recommend highly, if it is your kind of book or if you are willing to see if it is.

Henri, a French man with a history, was a journalist who covered wars. His thirteen year old son, Sam, did not know him. Just when they are about to meet, Henri saves a young girl but himself is injured and thereafter is in a coma. This means that Sam and Henri's reunion takes place in the hospital where Sam, who has synesthesia, senses deeply and feels Henri's presence. Sam spends every day at the hospital sharing himself with Henri and the novel's other protagonists.

This book is the story of several characters: Sam, Madelyn who is a young girl in a coma and Eddie, the woman that Henri let get away. Their relationships are explored and intersect with one another over the course of the novel which is told in alternating voices.

There is a philosophical underpinning to this book. The characters both live their lives and imagine the ways in which their lives might have played out differently with the same people. The author also explores what she imagines that characters think and feel when they are in a non-awake state and what happens when someone is about to die.

Nina George comments that she wrote three of her novels, of which this is the third, to better understand death. She was writing in the aftermath of her father's death. The book is beautifully written.

I very much enjoyed this author's novel, The Little Paris Bookshop and feel that The Book of Dreams is also a keeper. For me, it is a five star novel.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a moving and wonderful read. The opinions are my own.

After reading George’s earlier books, I felt the heavy dose of philosophy and the depth of the dreams of a comatose man were too deep for me. I felt the book was slow going, and skimmed much of it. Just not for me.

While I had felt like I wanted a bit more out of The Little Paris Bookshop, I am so glad I have the author another go! The Book of Dreams explores the different levels of consciousness that we as humans have always been fascinated with. Are there levels of consciousness other than just life and death?

After an accident leads to Henri being in a coma, the characters of The Book of Dreams grapple to answer that question. The Book shifts between the perspectives of Eddie, Henri's lover; Sam, Henri's 13-year-old son who was supposed to meet his father for the first time the day the accident occurred, and Henri, as he struggles through that shade of gray between life and death. As Sam spends more time in the hospital, he encounters Madelyn, a 12-year-old girl trapped in a vegetative state after a car crash killed her entire family, and is immediately drawn to her.

As Eddie and Sam continue to visit Madelyn and Henri in the hospital, the come face-to-face with some of life's toughest questions: is there life after death? Are there levels of consciousness that can't be defined or even measured by the medical field? Can we sense when somebody's spirit is present?

Meanwhile, Henri struggles to understand whether the choices you make in life are truly outcome determinative, whether mind can overcome body, and how to come to terms with the mistakes of his past.

There are just so many layers to this novel that I do not think I could ever do it justice in a review!

This book was just okay for me, but I know Nina George has a big fan following based on her first two books so I'm sure those readers will enjoy her latest offering. An interesting narrative structure.

I loved this book. It is reminiscent of Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time." Told in alternating points of view this novel tells the stories of Henri and Madelyn, a middle age man and a young girl who are in comas, and Eddie and Sam, Henri's former lover and son respectively. Eddie and Sam grapple with how to care for these individuals and learn lessons about life and love along the way.

George writes painful truths with beauty and patience. My favorite sections of the novel were told from Henri's point of view as he explores his past within the dreamlike state of his coma. Each of George's characters are fully fleshed out and believable. In any other writer's hands this plot could have easily turned into a lifetime movie channel melodrama, but in "The Book of Dreams" the pain and magic are fully realized and fully human.

I received an e-Arc of this book from NetGalley and the publsiher in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first book by Nina George, though I have had others on my to-read list. If you do not enjoy a story from multiple perspectives, skip this one. I found this to be a totally novel idea - there are 3 main character perspectives which together portray a lyrical history of generations and opportunities whether real or in an alt-dimension. Speculative, Fantastical at its best. 4.5 out of 5 stars*

No words... Another George book that goes on my "keeper shelf." This book, which George states in the afterword as having been written to help her deal with loss and death, is simply exquisite. I loved each of the main characters, and the settings/surroundings - and experiences - were beautifully written. This book will stay with me for a long, long time.

Nina George has done it again! THE BOOK OF DREAMS is about the relationship between Sam, a 13-year-old synesthete and his father, Henri Skinner, whom he has never met. Just as Sam and Henri are about to meet, Henri suffers an accident and falls into a coma. THE BOOK OF DREAMS explores the past, those that are and those that could have been, and what lies between life and death. All of the characters are fascinating, and both heartbreaking and heart-stealing. Nina George restores my faith in literature and humankind. Beautiful!