Jesse Ball, Sleep, Death’s Brother, 2017

Sleep, Death’s Brother is an instruction manual on dreaming that is intended for children or incarcerated persons. It enables such individuals to learn to lucid dream and to use their dreams to somewhat escape their situations. Like death, sleep is a kind of boundary, dividing waking life from the realm of dreams. While it is often the case that dream life is passively experienced, acclaimed novelist Jesse Ball (born 1978) reminds that it can be otherwise; that dreaming life is also a place where a sense of agency can grow. Even in the midst of physical or emotional environments that do not support such development in waking life, dreams are a place where one can take control. Ball calls for bravery in the exploration of this practice, and provides the dreamer with useful habits and techniques. Full of affirmation and wisdom, Sleep, Death’s Brother is a guidebook “for all oneironauts young and old.”