With stories that shimmer and vibrate in the bright heat of memory, David Almond creates a glowing mosaic of his life growing up in a large, loving Catholic family. He tenderly portrays those moments of awakening that carry a boy’s imagination far from the comforts and limits of his crowded home to the infinity of the star-studded universe. Here are the kernels of his novels—hope and fear, darkness and light, the bonds of ignorance and the healing power of love—in stories suffused with joy and an endless sense of wonder at the power of the imagination and the resilience of the human heart.