The Lake of Dreams

Jan 30, 2026 4:54 AM

Author:Kim Edwards

The Lake of Dreams

From the author of the bestselling and beloved novel The Memory Keeper's Daughter Kim Edwards, comes a mesmerising story of startling family secrets and lies in the Sunday Times bestselling novel The Lake of Dreams

The darkest secrets are the ones we hide from ourselves. . .

Ten years ago, traumatized by her father's death, Lucy left her home and her country. Now, she returns to her family's rambling lakeside home to lay old ghosts to rest.

Sleepless one night, Lucy makes a momentous discovery. Locked in a moonlit window seat is a collection of family heirlooms - objects whose secrets no one was ever supposed to find. Piecing together her family's true history, she realises that the story she has always been told was a fiction . . .

Mesmerizing and haunting, The Lake of Dreams is a startling story of family secrets and lies, lost love and redemption, and of the many pieces and puzzles that make up a life.

'An emotional novel with lyrical touches' Sunday Times

'Beautifully plotted and breathtakingly accomplished' Daily Express

'An absorbing, perceptive and moving tale' Daily Mail

'A powerful saga' Good Housekeeping

'An epic of discovery and deception' She

'A page-turner' Red

Kim Edwards is the author of the bestselling The Memory Keeper's Daughter and a collection of short stories, The Secrets of a Fire King. Her honours include the Whiting Award and the Nelson Algren Award, as well as the Kentucky Literary Award, a National Magazine Award, and a grant from the NEA.She is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

An absorbing, perceptive and moving tale that fans of The Memory Keeper's Daughter will lap up

—— Daily Mail

Beautifully plotted and breathtakingly accomplished

—— Daily Express

An emotional novel with lyrical touches

—— Sunday Times

A powerful saga

—— Good Housekeeping

An epic of discovery and deception

—— She

A page-turner

—— Red

A shocking backdrop if recent historical events, Andrea Eames has used a fresh, candid voice to create an intimate, sensitive and moving debut novel

—— Tina Jackson , Metro

In this assured debut novel, Eames draws on her own interrupted childhood...to paint an authentic portrait of a nation on the edge

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

The Cry of the Go-Away Bird is a promising debut novel, and Eames's own Zimbabwean childhood colours her writing with vivid descriptions of the earth, wildlife and Shona language

—— Syndicated Review across National Press

Remarkable story

—— TLS

The most original book I have read for quite a long time

—— Observer

Riverting ... both disturbing and entertaining, with twisted low-life chracters rivalling any created by Martin Amis or Nicola Barker

—— Leyla Sanai , Spectator

Sounds like a must-read

—— Reading Matters

Utterly remarkable…sad in its depth, but delightful on the shimmering surface… It might only be February, but there's going to need to be some strong competition in the months to come if this doesn't end up being my book of the year

—— The Bookbag

A wonderful survivor’s story… It’s excellent

—— Peter Murchie , British Journal of General Practice

This book is spooky, erotic and evocative. We loved it.

—— Richard & Judy , Daily Express

It is time we stopped thinking of the historical novel as a genre, and an inferior one at that. If its ostensible subject matter means that it doesn't attempt to tell us how we live now, nevertheless a novel set back in time may, if it is good, say as much about what it is to be alive as one set in the next street or another country today. Tides of War is such a novel. It is diverting, but not a diversion

—— The Spectator

A well written, engaging read...beautifully observed

—— History Today

A vivid account of a couple of years in the Peninsula Campaign and a sympathetic portrait of those left behind

—— Joanna Hines , Literary Review

A delicious novel by an experienced author who captures the scientific atmosphere of the early 19th century with a devastating study of infidelity

—— Colin Gardiner , Oxford Times

The real life players of the Napoleonic era spring to life

—— i

Compelling

—— Big Issue

Highly assured and almost educational with its broad sweep of history

—— Jane Housham , Guardian

Tillyard’s achievement is in this original portray log the Regency era and its relevance to our own time

—— Philippa Williams , The Lady

a very human tale about passion, secrets and lies.

—— Reading Matters

An achingly brilliant piece of writing on passion and delusion. It's a pleasure to read from start to finish and reignites our love for fiction

—— Independent

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