THE DREAM MERCHANT

This ambitious, well-crafted epic crosses vast, treacherous territories of time, dreams, geography and legend. Twelve-year-old Josh, a contemporary Londoner, receives mysterious nighttime phone calls asking when he’s going to arrive. Arrive where? Walking through magically replicating rooms in his own house, he comes to a huge business corporation where he’s hired as a salesperson. But the sales must take place in umaya, a world made up of individual and collective dreams. As he jumps into umaya, a spirit grasps at him and refuses to let go: She’s Jericho, his twin sister who died at birth. Their relationship becomes fierce and intense, fury offset by startling tenderness and beauty. Jericho joins Baz, who will become the world’s best drummer, and Teresa, a master of words, in Josh’s small group fighting to get home from umaya after the border slams shut. A feud between two ancient ancestral brothers from the beginning of time shapes Josh’s quest as he travels backwards through centuries. Creation legend and contemporary characters merge. Profound and serious; offbeat and clever. (Fantasy. YA)