Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish dream from reality, especially for people with a vivid imagination who aren’t quite willing to face the hard facts of adult life. Often they build themselves comfortable castles in the clouds to look down at the world through rose-coloured spectacles, but the foundations easily get cracks. Inhabitants who don’t notice the damage or take it too easy, will hurt themselves badly falling freely to the ground, while the others will make an effort to see things as they truly are. At his release from prison, the dreamy protagonist of my Bookish déjà-vu The Farewell Angel by Carmen Martín Gaite learns that his parents have been killed in a car accident. Completely on his own, he realises that he’ll never find his way in the real world unless he can break the freezing spell of The Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale…
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