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Der Träumesammler
Norris Lamb, der 55-jährige Postmeister eines kleinen Dorfes, hat sich zum ersten Mal in seinem Leben Hals über Kopf verliebt. Seine Zuneigung gilt der 42jährigen Vida, die ebenfalls noch nie zuvor richtig verliebt war und sich für ihre Arbeit aufopfert. Da Lamb zu schüchtern ist, um ihr seine Liebe zu gestehen, schickt er ihr anonyme Briefe. Erst nach langer Zeit erkennt Vida, wer ihr glühender Verehrer ist. Es beginnt eine zarte Romanze, die den ewigen Traum von der großen Liebe Wirklichkeit werden lässt.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1999
26 people are currently reading
349 people want to read
About the author
Carrie Brown
30 books72 followersCarrie Brown is the author of five novels – her most recent novel is The Rope Walk (Pantheon, 2007) – and a collection of short stories, The House on Belle Isle. Her other novels include Rose’s Garden, Lamb in Love, The Hatbox Baby and Confinement.
She has won many awards for her work, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and The Great Lakes Book Award. She has also twice won the Library of Virginia’s Fiction Award, and her novel The Rope Walk was chosen as the All Iowa Reads Selection by the Iowa Public Library. Her novels have appeared on the Best Books of the Year lists from The Christian Science Monitor and The Chicago Tribune.
A frequent book reviewer for newspapers including The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, her short fiction has also appeared in journals including One Story, The Oxford American, The Georgia Review, Glimmer Train, and Blackbird. She teaches Creative Writing at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. You can visit her summer reading blog http://bookclub.blog.sbc.edu/.
She has won many awards for her work, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and The Great Lakes Book Award. She has also twice won the Library of Virginia’s Fiction Award, and her novel The Rope Walk was chosen as the All Iowa Reads Selection by the Iowa Public Library. Her novels have appeared on the Best Books of the Year lists from The Christian Science Monitor and The Chicago Tribune.
A frequent book reviewer for newspapers including The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, her short fiction has also appeared in journals including One Story, The Oxford American, The Georgia Review, Glimmer Train, and Blackbird. She teaches Creative Writing at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. You can visit her summer reading blog http://bookclub.blog.sbc.edu/.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
May 30, 2018
Vida became Manford Perry’s Nanny when she was just 21 years old, and he a small baby. Manford’s mother died giving birth to him and his brain was damaged during childbirth. He is mentally challenged and mute, but he is also loving in his own way and over the past 20 years, Vida’s devotion and unflagging patience and love have guided him to become his best.
It is the night of the moon landing in 1969 when Norris Lamb, local post-master, falls in love with Vida. He has known her all her life yet it is only now, at age 55, that he sees her in the light of love. Norris loves his collection of stamps, enjoys playing the organ in church, and takes pride in always doing his duty. The one objective he was always far too shy to act upon is falling in love. And now, here he is.
This beautiful story of Norris, Vida, and Manford unfolds slowly over the course of the novel. The writing is dream-like at times, filled with imagery that left me with the feeling of having read beautiful poetry. There is much to reflect on and this book funnels one’s reflections. The story is – or can be – a metaphor for many other aspects of life.
I loved the writing in this novel and felt moved and uplifted by it at many points while reading. Carrie Brown has accomplished a rare mission – a charming and tangible love story that is timeless and ageless; one that will have appeal for a broad, mixed assembly of readers. I highly recommend this story to everyone who is interested in expanding their own understanding of love and commitment.
It is the night of the moon landing in 1969 when Norris Lamb, local post-master, falls in love with Vida. He has known her all her life yet it is only now, at age 55, that he sees her in the light of love. Norris loves his collection of stamps, enjoys playing the organ in church, and takes pride in always doing his duty. The one objective he was always far too shy to act upon is falling in love. And now, here he is.
This beautiful story of Norris, Vida, and Manford unfolds slowly over the course of the novel. The writing is dream-like at times, filled with imagery that left me with the feeling of having read beautiful poetry. There is much to reflect on and this book funnels one’s reflections. The story is – or can be – a metaphor for many other aspects of life.
I loved the writing in this novel and felt moved and uplifted by it at many points while reading. Carrie Brown has accomplished a rare mission – a charming and tangible love story that is timeless and ageless; one that will have appeal for a broad, mixed assembly of readers. I highly recommend this story to everyone who is interested in expanding their own understanding of love and commitment.
November 7, 2022
A charming story about love and being oneself. All the time I wanted to hug Vida, Norris and Manford, but I could only hug the book. The book is an unexpected gem to me.
Two middle-aged people (a bachelor and a spinster) who knew each other the whole life, who lived in a small English village in 1969. Perhaps it is hard to believe but the love story between Vida and Norris was marvelous, intense and gentle. I was hooked since the beginning.
The love of Norris Lamb was unusual compared to most romances in books. It was indeed 'a lamb in love', although fifty-five-year-old. I still can't believe how much I was thrilled by his anxiety, his struggles.
And Manford (the twenty years old mentally disabled son of a rich American widower)... His story, Vida's love and devotion for him... Simple but how beautiful.
I think that the book was so delightful because of Carrie Brown's style of telling the story, soft but also emotionally intensive. I am thrilled because there is the chance that other Brown's novels are the same and they are available to me. So, I am definitely going to read some of them.
People came to understand one another not by words but by what had happened between them. It couldn't be said, in so many words.
Two middle-aged people (a bachelor and a spinster) who knew each other the whole life, who lived in a small English village in 1969. Perhaps it is hard to believe but the love story between Vida and Norris was marvelous, intense and gentle. I was hooked since the beginning.
What do we know of ourselves except as through a prism, he wonders, the endless refractions of our mind turning back on itself like a dog chasing its own tail?
The love of Norris Lamb was unusual compared to most romances in books. It was indeed 'a lamb in love', although fifty-five-year-old. I still can't believe how much I was thrilled by his anxiety, his struggles.
And Manford (the twenty years old mentally disabled son of a rich American widower)... His story, Vida's love and devotion for him... Simple but how beautiful.
You could see that it only wanted some attention to be beautiful again.
I think that the book was so delightful because of Carrie Brown's style of telling the story, soft but also emotionally intensive. I am thrilled because there is the chance that other Brown's novels are the same and they are available to me. So, I am definitely going to read some of them.
August 21, 2016
Beautiful! A slow and tender affair of the heart, both the surprising "romantic love at our age" for Norris and Vida, and the maternal love and insight Vida has for Manford. These characters will stay with me for a long time.
April 19, 2020
“Lamb in Love”. A truly heartwarming love story of two lonely middle age people falling in love. This all happens in a quiet English village of Hursley during the first moon landing. Vida Stephen is a 40 year old nanny for a twenty year old mentally handicapped son of a rich American Widower, and Norris Lamb is a 55 year old fussy stamp collecting postmaster church organist. I loved all the characters and each of their stories in this simple village back then.
December 26, 2013
There are novels for summer reading on the beach. There are novels for winter evenings by the fire. And so why shouldn't there be novels to welcome the spring? Carrie Brown's "Lamb in Love" is as delightful as crocuses erupting through dirty snow.
This gentle, witty story about two middle-aged people falling in love for the first time reads like something Anita Brookner would write, if she would just cheer up. Brown demonstrates a kind of rare courage for a serious novelist: a willingness to let things work out well.
The night Neil Armstrong makes his giant step for mankind, Norris Lamb is taking a big step of his own. On a nightly walk, he spots Vida, a woman "almost old enough to be considered a spinster," dancing around a long-dormant fountain in the moonlight. While the rest of the world gazes at the sky, Norris is struck by a more cosmic vision.
"This love for Vida has swept over Norris, overtaken him after a lifetime of crisscrossing the same streets as she, going in and out the same doors, conducting their business over the same counters. Oh, Norris knows how silly it looks, how they'd laugh, all his neighbors, if they knew. He knows he is a victim of a delicious assault, a caress from a lion's paw."
As postmaster for a little English village, Norris is a man of extraordinarily small experience in love. Long detained in the care of his old relatives, he's had little time to think about romance at all, except for a few chaste fantasies about the women he sees on postage stamps.
Empowered by this new elixir, convinced that "he has everything to risk, and everything to gain," Norris begins timidly courting Vida with a series of anonymous gifts dropped in her path and love notes mailed from exotic locals around the world. "He hopes to astonish her with how wonderful it is to be alive," but Vida worries that a maniac is stalking her.
Stumped by the challenge of making his feelings known, Norris considers songs, lingerie, and skywriting, but finally settles on a series of hysterically nervous conversations with Vida at the post office. (He's covered with so many bits of tissue paper from cutting himself shaving that he looks like a piata.)
The comedy of these strange people never subjects them to ridicule. Brown's deft portrayal of Vida and her care for a mentally handicapped young man is so sweet and affecting that we can't help but fall in love with her, too.
This is a novelist who understands that the forest is in the leaf. Brown takes such care with these simple people's hopes and fears that before we know it, their luminary love seems as wondrous as anything else on earth, or beyond.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0422/p1...
This gentle, witty story about two middle-aged people falling in love for the first time reads like something Anita Brookner would write, if she would just cheer up. Brown demonstrates a kind of rare courage for a serious novelist: a willingness to let things work out well.
The night Neil Armstrong makes his giant step for mankind, Norris Lamb is taking a big step of his own. On a nightly walk, he spots Vida, a woman "almost old enough to be considered a spinster," dancing around a long-dormant fountain in the moonlight. While the rest of the world gazes at the sky, Norris is struck by a more cosmic vision.
"This love for Vida has swept over Norris, overtaken him after a lifetime of crisscrossing the same streets as she, going in and out the same doors, conducting their business over the same counters. Oh, Norris knows how silly it looks, how they'd laugh, all his neighbors, if they knew. He knows he is a victim of a delicious assault, a caress from a lion's paw."
As postmaster for a little English village, Norris is a man of extraordinarily small experience in love. Long detained in the care of his old relatives, he's had little time to think about romance at all, except for a few chaste fantasies about the women he sees on postage stamps.
Empowered by this new elixir, convinced that "he has everything to risk, and everything to gain," Norris begins timidly courting Vida with a series of anonymous gifts dropped in her path and love notes mailed from exotic locals around the world. "He hopes to astonish her with how wonderful it is to be alive," but Vida worries that a maniac is stalking her.
Stumped by the challenge of making his feelings known, Norris considers songs, lingerie, and skywriting, but finally settles on a series of hysterically nervous conversations with Vida at the post office. (He's covered with so many bits of tissue paper from cutting himself shaving that he looks like a piata.)
The comedy of these strange people never subjects them to ridicule. Brown's deft portrayal of Vida and her care for a mentally handicapped young man is so sweet and affecting that we can't help but fall in love with her, too.
This is a novelist who understands that the forest is in the leaf. Brown takes such care with these simple people's hopes and fears that before we know it, their luminary love seems as wondrous as anything else on earth, or beyond.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0422/p1...
October 23, 2011
This is a gentle, warming cuppa tea in book form. The characters are very well detailed, with their English eccentricities surrounded by the feel of village life. My pulse rate slowed when reading this novel, so perhaps it might be a good antidote to high-stress living. I really enjoyed this work, having gotten used to so much high-speed blah, blah, blah. This is a good volume to hold until the rains start pouring down. Then, take your tea in printed format.
Nice hardcover, too, with an excellent jacket illustration symbolizing perfectly the main character..plus the typeset is good quality.
Book Season = Year Round
Nice hardcover, too, with an excellent jacket illustration symbolizing perfectly the main character..plus the typeset is good quality.
Book Season = Year Round
August 9, 2016
Quirky, charming, unusual. Love awakens for the very first time for two individuals who thought themselves immune and long past the age of falling head-over-heels in love. Neither Norris Lamb or Vida Stephen are prepared, or even equipped, for what happens when Norris accidentally stumbles across Vida dancing in the moonlight. Heartwarming and lovely! A keeper.
May 26, 2010
This story was so fresh and sweet. I really liked the quirky characters and the honest blandness of their lives.
The plot is a simple one involving people from a small English town, mid-century, who lead a routine unexciting existence.
Vida Stephens is a middle aged, average woman employed as a nanny for a wealthy mans son who is considered the village idiot. The boys mother died in childbirth and it soon became apparent that the child was "different".
The Father hired Vida, a young woman in the town, to live with them and care for Manford, the boy. Over the years, she cares for him and loves him. The father is rarely home and never develops a relationship with Manford, who is mute.
One evening, Vida is moved by the beauty of the moon and the velvet caress of the night air and dances with utter abandon around the recently repaired fountain in her nightgown. She is observed, quite by accident and with worshipful awe, by the nocturnal postman of the town Norris Lamb, who is enjoying the evening splendor as well on a rambling walk through the slumbering town.
Thus begins a blooming of love in Norris's heart as he realizes he has never noticed how amazing and beautiful Vida is. Immediately, he sets out to make her fall in love with him, sending mysterious love letters, shadowing her and Manford about town, clandestinely leaving presents on her bed and hording any bit of conversation or opportunity to be in her presence he can finagle. He is blithely unaware of how this may be misconstrued by Vida as frightening or "stalkerish", mainly due to his lack of experience with women and his absorption with the pure, overwhelming love he feels for her.
Without realizing he is her secret admirer, Vida begins to react to Norris's attentions. Initially, with reserve and bewilderment but gradually growing to see him as a wonderful friend and person. His thoughtfulness for Manford and ability to treat him kindly shows Vida his true worth and eventually brings her to the realization that what she's been looking for all her life is already right here.
The plot is a simple one involving people from a small English town, mid-century, who lead a routine unexciting existence.
Vida Stephens is a middle aged, average woman employed as a nanny for a wealthy mans son who is considered the village idiot. The boys mother died in childbirth and it soon became apparent that the child was "different".
The Father hired Vida, a young woman in the town, to live with them and care for Manford, the boy. Over the years, she cares for him and loves him. The father is rarely home and never develops a relationship with Manford, who is mute.
One evening, Vida is moved by the beauty of the moon and the velvet caress of the night air and dances with utter abandon around the recently repaired fountain in her nightgown. She is observed, quite by accident and with worshipful awe, by the nocturnal postman of the town Norris Lamb, who is enjoying the evening splendor as well on a rambling walk through the slumbering town.
Thus begins a blooming of love in Norris's heart as he realizes he has never noticed how amazing and beautiful Vida is. Immediately, he sets out to make her fall in love with him, sending mysterious love letters, shadowing her and Manford about town, clandestinely leaving presents on her bed and hording any bit of conversation or opportunity to be in her presence he can finagle. He is blithely unaware of how this may be misconstrued by Vida as frightening or "stalkerish", mainly due to his lack of experience with women and his absorption with the pure, overwhelming love he feels for her.
Without realizing he is her secret admirer, Vida begins to react to Norris's attentions. Initially, with reserve and bewilderment but gradually growing to see him as a wonderful friend and person. His thoughtfulness for Manford and ability to treat him kindly shows Vida his true worth and eventually brings her to the realization that what she's been looking for all her life is already right here.
July 6, 2018
A quiet but beautifully written story. Norris Lamb, the middle-aged postmaster in a small English village, suddenly realizes that he’s in love with Vida, who’s spent her adult life as ‘nanny’ to Manfred, a mentally disabled boy, now a young man. Norris’ ways of letting Vida know about his love are so circuitous and inept that they drive the reader, as well as Vida, to think that he’s more like a stalker! But his developing understanding and appreciation for Manfred reveals that he truly has a capacity for loving.
March 13, 2024
This one was kind of hard to rate. I liked a lot of things about this book. The cozy slow love story. The English countryside vibes. But, there were just a lot of things that just made me feel...uncomfortable. Which shouldn't be the case with this type of story.
One of the main things was the way Manford is portrayed. It's actually not that bad for the most part, but something about it just rubs me the wrong way without being able to fully explain why. It's something about how they describe his innocence and put him on a pedestal because of his disability.
*Spoilers for two events that happen in the book*
I also thought it was really weird that they tried to make it sound like Norris breaking into Vida's house and leaving the equivalent of modern day lingerie in her bedroom was a funny mistake. Like "he's so bad at romance that now Vida thinks she has a stalker. Isn't that hilarious". No. No it's not. It's really creepy and any sane man would know that. This isn't a silly mistake. HE BROKE INTO HER HOUSE. They hadn't even had a proper conversation at this point and he hadn't been courting her for more than like a day. So of course she was freaked.
There was also a mild SA scene in the book that is handled really badly. Vida literally says that she was silly for being so afraid. That she should have fought back because he was younger and not actually scary. WHAT? She doesn't even tell her employer about it because she feels bad for the person who SA her. She says he was just being silly and he was just a kid, but he's like twenty. It also doesn't have any effect on her emotionally afterward. She's perfectly fine and acts like the guy just broke her favorite vase or something. It was so icky and off putting. Completely caught me off guard.
These are the ones that stuck with me the most, but there was just a lot of little moments like these that really made the book hard to get through.
One of the main things was the way Manford is portrayed. It's actually not that bad for the most part, but something about it just rubs me the wrong way without being able to fully explain why. It's something about how they describe his innocence and put him on a pedestal because of his disability.
*Spoilers for two events that happen in the book*
I also thought it was really weird that they tried to make it sound like Norris breaking into Vida's house and leaving the equivalent of modern day lingerie in her bedroom was a funny mistake. Like "he's so bad at romance that now Vida thinks she has a stalker. Isn't that hilarious". No. No it's not. It's really creepy and any sane man would know that. This isn't a silly mistake. HE BROKE INTO HER HOUSE. They hadn't even had a proper conversation at this point and he hadn't been courting her for more than like a day. So of course she was freaked.
There was also a mild SA scene in the book that is handled really badly. Vida literally says that she was silly for being so afraid. That she should have fought back because he was younger and not actually scary. WHAT? She doesn't even tell her employer about it because she feels bad for the person who SA her. She says he was just being silly and he was just a kid, but he's like twenty. It also doesn't have any effect on her emotionally afterward. She's perfectly fine and acts like the guy just broke her favorite vase or something. It was so icky and off putting. Completely caught me off guard.
These are the ones that stuck with me the most, but there was just a lot of little moments like these that really made the book hard to get through.
June 27, 2021
I found this book to be plodding in pace yet a valid attempt at deep characterization. However, I feel it failed to hold the reader's interest. It became a treatise on love and what it means more than a relationship development where the characters take precedent and the theory of love is secondary.
Carrie Brown is excellent in portraying via words, the complexity of dynamics between men and women. She has an excellent knowledge of many of the psychological workings that underlie many of our actions. But for me, something got lost in the translation of knowledge and making the story come alive.
Carrie Brown is excellent in portraying via words, the complexity of dynamics between men and women. She has an excellent knowledge of many of the psychological workings that underlie many of our actions. But for me, something got lost in the translation of knowledge and making the story come alive.
September 26, 2020
Two late middle aged people who have never been in love, fall in love with each other. Vida is nursemaid and friend to a mentally handicapped young man (and has been since he was very young). Norris is the postmaster in their rural village. They've known each other most of their lives, but it isn't until Norris unexpectedly sees Vida unreservedly dancing one night, that he falls in love with her. How he tries to show her that he is in love with her is funny, but sometimes also silly. The "courtship" drags a bit, but overall, a fun read.
April 9, 2023
A delicate, fresh, and tender exploration of love between two unlikely heroes. The prose was beautifully written, bringing me to tears a few times as Brown touchingly portrayed the grief and beauty of post-WW2 England and the subtle effects that trauma still had on the inhabitants of a sleepy countryside village. Ultimately, this book ended with a great deal of hope and light.
August 24, 2023
A sweet, but surprisingly creepy, love story. I enjoyed the book, but was a bit disturbed by the way that "Lamb" went about displaying his "secret love". I enjoyed the author's style of writing and am interested in reading another book by her. I will be curious to see if I enjoy a different book by her more than this one.
April 19, 2018
This was a sweet story about two people who did not quite realize that they were lonely, until they did. The characters were charmingly quirky, and the writing style was a lovely descriptive prose.
August 5, 2018
A stalker? Is he romantic or creepy? I couldn’t decide. The attempted rape by the gardener was out of place. I started out loving the story but it never really developed. I loved the atmosphere which the author depicted very beautifully.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2019
I loved this book so much. Such beautiful storytelling. December was a great month to read something with a story arc that didn't rush itself, but rather took its own sweet time getting to the climax and resolution. We need more books like this.
December 23, 2018
A sweet romance that changes three lives.
January 21, 2019
At first I thought the stalking of the main character was creepy. But it turns out Norris Lamb is an endearing fellow and it's a sweet story.
May 24, 2019
Great book about love and how it isn't a straight line.
May 25, 2020
Very good story.
The story is very good but the writing is too descriptive. I love the the characters. Enjoyable read and I will read second book
The story is very good but the writing is too descriptive. I love the the characters. Enjoyable read and I will read second book
October 17, 2020
Very sweet story.
October 19, 2021
Sweet book
November 20, 2021
Loved it. Good writing, interesting characters, twists and turns. The different ways we love.
January 11, 2022
I really enjoyed this book and I especially liked how it ended. The story was very interesting and the characters were so delightful.
November 17, 2024
Unbearable human tenderness
April 4, 2025
it’s a very lovely book. just a story of a beautiful romance :)
August 16, 2025
Enjoyable and sweet, written by a professor at my alma mater.
November 27, 2020
A beautiful, old fashioned story.
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