'Dream Angus' is based on the myth of the Celtic god Angus who carries dreams to people while they sleep.
If he's in the right mood, divine Angus might grant you sight of your true love in a dream; you might even fall in love with - but he'll never love you back. He's too busy making mischief - stealing the palace of the gods from his father, turning his enemies into pigs, etc - until he is trapped by his own romantic games and falls for an unattainable woman, doomed to seek her forever.
There are two strands of narrative in this wonderful story - one telling the story of Angus himself, his father Dagda and his mother Boann, and his great love for the swan maiden Cair. McCall Smith tells this tale effortlessly, as though the shape-changer Dagda, who is all things beautiful and terrible, had himself dictated it to the author.
Woven into Angus' story, are five contemporary fables, exquisite short stories in which dreams play a pivotal narrative role.
