“The Dreaming Girl” is a slim, poetic novel that lured me into its dream and didn’t let me go.

Set in Belize, its unnamed characters, the girl and the German, are drawn together against the lush backdrop of paradise and all of its unique inhabitants. The girl dreams her way through life until she meets the German, and her attraction, and consequent love for him, forces her out of the safety of her dreams. The German, with a girlfriend at home, finds himself surprised by his desire for the girl and initially resistant.
The prose in “The Dreaming Girl” is spare, yet Roberta Allen knows how to set a mood with the blank spaces, and there are plenty of sharp insights to be unearthed. It’s an honest, beautifully rendered metaphor for the birth and death of love. A spectacularly gorgeous read.