Dreams Underfoot

by Charles De Lint

Published 1 April 1993
I have spread my dreams under your feet: tread softly, for you tread upon my dreams... So said Irish poet William Butler Yeats, and so Charles de Lint has done. He has spread before us the wondrous fabric of his dreams in this tour de force of modern urban fantasy. De Lint, today's leading writer of urban magical tales, has created the imaginary city of Newford and peopled its streets, its music clubs, and back alleys with characters both dark and bright, both human and inhuman, both frightening and wondrous fair. Jilly paints magic in rough city streets. Geordie plays fiddle and longs for a ghost. Christy collects urban folklore and myths, while the angel of Grasso Street gathers the young and the scared and the poor and the lost. The gemmin live in abandoned cars, the skells traverse the tunnels below, mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold nights with their song. Like John Crowley's Little, Big and Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale, Dreams Underfoot is a Must Read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life.