Torey Hayden’s *Overheard in a Dream* offers a poignant glimpse into the fragmented world of the Innes family. Nine-year-old Conor, labelled autistic, struggles to connect, while his novelist mother, Laura, remains emotionally distant, and his father is preoccupied with a bitter divorce. Child psychiatrist James Innes questions Conor’s diagnosis, uncovering a reality far stranger than anticipated a world where “things the cat knows” hold cryptic clues, and Conor’s sister, Morgana, speaks of ghosts and a “Lion King” friend. However, it’s Laura’s captivating yet unsettling imagination that holds the deepest secrets. A poignant exploration of family, trauma, and the blurred lines between reality and fantasy, this novel delves into the hidden burdens that shape our lives and the transformative power of empathy. A must-read for fans of character-driven dramas and psychological mysteries.
Overheard in a Dream
16.76 $
In stock
Bestselling author Torey Hayden’s novel is a fascinating study of a fractured family, a troubled child, and a psychiatrists attempts to rescue them.
Conor, aged nine, arrives in the play therapy room of child psychiatrist James Innes with the diagnosis “autistic”. His mother Laura, an aloof, enigmatic novelist, can’t handle him. His rancher father, embroiled in divorcing Laura, does not feel there is anything wrong with Conor.
His six year old sister Morgana insists he really does see ghosts.
As James becomes convinced Conor is not autistic, he is drawn first into Conor’s strange world of “things the cat knows” and then into Morgana’s stories of her friend the “Lion King”.
James is pulled most deeply, however, into Laura’s world; at first that of a lonely, rather difficult woman and then, eventually, into the world of her imagination, an enthralling world that seems almost real – and that hides a terrible secret.
