When Rachel Klein was born 12 years in the past, Krasnia’s oceanside capital of Brava was a vigorous, beautiful place dotted with palm bushes and populated by residents who reveled in residing there. Sadly, in British screenwriter and playwright David Farr’s The Book of Stolen Dreams, lightheartedness is lengthy gone from present-day Brava.
A tyrannical man named Charles Malstain and his military invaded town shortly after Rachel was born. The emperor of Krasnia was executed within the city sq., and Brava was systematically destroyed. Under Malstain’s rule, public areas are just for adults, posters declaring that “a seen child is a bad child” are plastered all over the place, and youngsters are solely permitted to depart dwelling to go to high school, the place they have to research government-issued supplies and muddle by dreary days.
But Rachel’s mother and father, Judith and Felix, create a heat, supportive dwelling for Rachel and her older brother, Robert, the place laughter is allowed and creativity is inspired. On Rachel’s birthday, Felix gives the youngsters a deal with within the kind of a go to to the library the place he works. What begins as a bootleg jaunt quickly turns into one thing the youngsters by no means might’ve anticipated: an pressing, terrifying mission to guard The Book of Stolen Dreams, an historic magical tome lengthy treasured by good individuals but zealously coveted by Malstain, who will cease at nothing to acquire the e book and use it for evil.
From an opulent lodge to a mysterious previous bookshop, from tenement housing to an enormous silver airship, the siblings’ exhilarating and harmful journey swoops from thrilling to terrifying to heartwarming and again once more. Suspenseful motion scenes and gasp-worthy surprises abound as Rachel and Robert try to evade seize whereas searching for the Book’s vitally essential however lacking final web page, which unlocks life-altering magic, earlier than Malstain can.
Farr’s superbly crafted, thought-provoking story isn’t an easy-breezy learn, however Farr is intimately acquainted with its stakes: The Book of Stolen Dreams was impressed by his personal German Jewish household’s escape from Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1938. The novel grapples with powerful, weighty questions: Is happiness doable underneath authorities oppression? When is a danger worthwhile? What can we owe our fellow residents?
Farr’s characters expertise concern and grief proper alongside delight and surprise. As his omniscient narrator observes with the combination of hard-won acceptance, hope and love for humanity that echoes all through The Book of Stolen Dreams, “Such is life, my friend. There is no joy without accompanying sorrow. There is no despair so dark that a sliver of light cannot abate it.”
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