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Yesterday's Tomorrow

Part I, Just a Dream - Summary

Part I Chapter 1 Audiobook Teaser


Harvard historian Andy Spencer has spent his career struggling to unravel the truth behind the Third Reich downfall. On Spring 2001, his research is on the verge of a breakthrough, but life takes a mysterious turn.

Right before sending his class off to spring break, professor Spencer blacks out. The lights suddenly turn off. It turns out it’s in his head. Locked out of all his senses, Andy floats in complete darkness for what seems like hours, but when he regains his eyesight, he realizes the ordeal was instantaneous. Though he chooses to dismiss the odd episode as a one-time neural glitch, it is only a sign for what is yet to follow.

The next day he is in the jungles of Costa Rica, trying to land himself an interview with one of the last living witnesses who could support his ground-breaking theory. When they finally meet, the old ex-Nazi commandant swears he recognizes Andy from the war and collapses before giving him anything of substance.

Exhausted and empty handed, Andy returns to his Boston apartment. He wishes for nothing more than a good night sleep, but the minute he shuts his eyes, he falls through the same dark tunnel he did earlier that week. Only this time, when he reaches the light at the end, he finds himself in a raging battlefield, entrapped in a trench with a group of Czech resistance fighters surrounded by a Wehrmacht battalion. A massive explosion sends him back to his bedroom. It’s JUST A DREAM, he sighs, but when he falls asleep again, he is back at the same place to face the devastation - the entire company of Czech fighters he has just met few minutes earlier is wiped out by the blast.

For the next five nights, Andy keeps returning to war torn Europe sixty years in the past in a timeline parallel to his present-day life. Everything he experiences in the dream registers in his mind with such clarity and realism, it feels more like he’s living an alternate reality in his sleep. Andy fears it’s a sign he is losing his sanity, but every visit brings fresh revelations and clues that connect his dream world with the real world, assuring him there’s more to it than just a mental disorder.