![Hello, Future! [Please be kind.] Hardcover Journal](https://hachette.imgix.net/books/9781546015079.jpg?w=210&h=280&fit=crop)
Dream State: 'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style
Eric Puchner
Formats & Editions
An Oprah's Book Club Pick and an instant New York Times bestseller
A Book of the Year for The Times, Guardian and BBC Culture in 2025
'[A] brilliantly panoramic tale of family ties' Guardian
'Moving, funny and utterly engrossing' The Times'A totally involving and moving literary page-turner' Clare Chambers
'I did not stop reading Dream State for three days straight' Jessie Burton
'I loved it. I read it so so fast and I think if you like, for example, Jonathan Franzen or books where people love, love, love a place so much, you too may find yourself longing to jump in a lake' Ella Risbridger
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her in-laws' beautiful lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a cardiac anaesthesiologist with a brilliant life ahead of him.
When Charlie asks Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, Cece can't imagine anyone less appropriate; but as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. Spanning fifty years after that fateful summer, Dream State is a profoundly moving saga of friendship, marriage and the ways we make meaning out of loss.
Read MorePraise for Dream State: 'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style
-
A family history that feels monumental . . . The book's effect is hypnotically telescopic, a vision of people we come to know across decades . . . We book reviewers don't get to say much about endings, but Puchner's final chapter is one of the most touching and satisfying I've read in years. I see you teetering there between choosing to read Dream State or not. Jump in - Washington PostI like it when a novel surprises me. So often, it's easy to slot literary narratives into a short list of categories: will-they-won't-they romance, journey to self-knowledge, sad girl millennial lit. By page 50, I can generally tell my thinly disguised autobiographies from my cosy crimes. But Dream State went somewhere I wasn't expecting . . . On the sentence level, Puchner's writing is almost flawless - I can't think of another book I have annotated so heavily, underlining phrases on almost every page... moving, funny and utterly engrossing. - The Times
Find a book you'll love, get our newsletter
© Hachette Aotearoa | New Zealand, All Rights Reserved · Site by Chook