The Daydreamer

“After finishing another chapter of ‘The Dreamer,’ I read it aloud to my children. The agreement was simple: they listened to the fresh part… and I listened to useful editor’s remarks. <…> We like in children’s books what gives our children joy, and here love—not literature—has much to do with it. Even at the very beginning of working on ‘The Dreamer’ and reading it aloud, I thought that perhaps we should forget our powerful tradition of children’s literature and write a book for adults about a child, using a language that children will understand. In the age of Hemingway and Calvino, simple prose shouldn’t turn away the sophisticated reader. I hoped that its subject—imagination itself—has direct relevance to everyone who picks up the book,”—McEwen says about ‘The Dreamer.’