“A man? You? You dream, Bayu, you dream, but all the same, you have not dreamed enough because you haven’t made the journey to Mount Meru…”
The sharp words of his fiancée to the young African Muslim, Bayu, push him forward. He becomes impatient to achieve what generations of his ancestors, a clan of sculptors and artists, have done: To make the journey which all men of the clan must make, and to dream three dreams on Mount Meru, before
he can take a wife. From a village near Mombassa, in Kenya, he must cross the forests to Mount Meru, in
Tanzania, a huge distance across hostile terrain, made harder by his inexperience and innocence. Yet, step by step, the young sculptor throws himself into the adventure, which illuminates a wild universe—the strange beauty of the trees, the ever-present animals who alternately threaten and protect him on this increasingly magical but always dangerous voyage. And throughout, the eyes of the leopard—a figure which Bayu’s ancestor held captivated and captive—protect him. Bayu’s journey through the forests and mountains entrances us as we are absorbed into his world.François Devenne enchants with this remarkable tale. Eloquently translated by Lauren Yoder.
About the Author
 Born in Nantes in 1964, François Devenne wrote his thesis in the geography and
agriculture of Kilimanjaro before working for the French Institute of African Research in Nairobi (Kenya). He expects to return to Paris. Three Dreams is his first novel, written during his years in Africa.
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