Dream State
'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style
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4.0 • 22 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
⭐ An Oprah's Book Club pick
⭐ An instant New York Times bestseller
⭐ A Book of the Year for The Times and Guardian
⭐ One of the 12 best books of 2025 for BBC Culture
'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style
'Moving, funny and utterly engrossing' Sunday Times
'A book to lose yourself into' Guardian
'I did not stop reading it for three days straight' Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist
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 future.
When Charlie asks Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, Cece can't imagine anyone less appropriate for the task. After all, Garrett, a depressed baggage handler at the local airport, doesn't believe in marriage. But as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, she grows increasingly uncertain about her future, leading to an impulsive decision that will alter the three friends' lives forever - the events of that summer reverberating across fifty years and spanning generations.
More praise for Dream State
'The kind of book you don't want to put down' Oprah Winfrey
'A sprawling page-turner' Grazia
'A totally involving and moving literary page-turner' Clare Chambers, author of Shy Creatures
'A transporting wonder... A rare pleasure' Ron Charles, Washington Post
'I can't think of another book I have annotated so heavily, underlining phrases on almost every page' The Times
'[A] brilliantly panoramic tale of family ties... Puchner tells his tale so compellingly, so engagingly, with such warmth and humor, that it's not until you set the book down that you can appreciate the brilliance of what he's done' Guardian
'As funny as it is devastating... I haven't been this dazzled by a novel in a long time' Lit Hub
'Expansive... explores how we might make meaning of our existence in the face of escalating loss' New Yorker
'[W]hat begins as a high-stakes love triangle tale transforms into an engrossing family saga, spanning 50 years. The magnetic pull between the three characters is enough to sustain a third plotline: the devastating effect of climate change on Montana and the life they have built there.' Sunday Times
'I love a slightly oversized American novel, one that's going to take you on a journey' Times Radio
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this introspective drama from Puchner (Model Home), two families' entwined fates are set in stark relief against harsh changes to the climate in near-future Montana. It begins in summer 2004, when medical school dropout Cece Calhoun travels by herself from Los Angeles to Salish, Mont., to begin preparations for her wedding to anesthesiologist Charlie Margolis, which will be held at his family's summer home. Charlie, concerned she'll feel isolated, sends his best friend and their officiant, Garrett Meek, to check on her. Cece and Garrett form a strong and unexpected connection, and they end up running away together shortly after the wedding. Nine years later, Charlie, now married with two children and still summering in Montana, invites Cece, Garrett, and their daughter, Lana, back into his life. Puchner's immersive narrative often has the feel of flipbook animation as it glides across the ensuing decades, highlighting Cece's struggles with running a bookstore, Garrett's fixation on tracking wolverines, and Lana's connection with Charlie's troubled son, Jasper, who later struggles with heroin addiction and is drawn to a dangerous cult. In the meantime, the nearby lake dries up and wildfire smoke becomes ever present, a subtle rebuke to choices made by the characters decades earlier. Puchner's expansive yet nuanced storytelling has much to offer.
