The Dream Hotel
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025
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3.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
* LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 *
* A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK MARCH 2025 *
'A gripping, Kafkaesque foray into an all-too-plausible future' JENNIFER EGAN
'So cleverly conceived, so relevant, that everyone should read it and sweat' THE TIMES
'Extraordinary' RUMAAN ALAM
'Absolutely unputdownable' SANDRA NEWMAN
Sara is returning home from a conference abroad when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside at the airport. Using data from her dreams, their algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming her husband. For his safety, she must be transferred to a retention centre, and kept under observation for twenty-one days.
But as Sara arrives to be monitored alongside other dangerous dreamers, she discovers that with every deviation from the facility's strict and ever-shifting rules, their stays can be extended – and that getting home to her family is going to cost much more than just three weeks of good behaviour.
Then, one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
The Dream Hotel is a gripping speculative mystery about the seductive dangers of the technologies that are supposed to make our lives easier. As terrifying as it is inventive, it explores how well we can ever truly know those around us – even with the most invasive surveillance systems in place.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lalami (The Other Americans) delivers a stirring dystopian tale of dwindling privacy and freedom in the digital age. In the late 2030s, Sara T. Hussein, 38, a Muslim American art archivist, is detained by officials from the Risk Assessment Administration, who claim data recorded by her Dreamsaver implant, which was originally developed to treat sleep apnea, predicts she will murder her husband. She's held at a repurposed elementary school for "observation," which stretches on for nearly a year, and forced to work in the de facto prison's laundry room. "Retainees," as prisoners like Sara are called, are promised their freedom if they're compliant and they stop dreaming about potential crimes, but she's released only after making a nuisance by organizing a work stoppage. She returns home to her husband and twin toddlers, who urge her to stay out of trouble, but she immediately starts planning to help her friends at the retention center regain their freedom, partnering with a former retainee whom she met inside. The premise calls to mind Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report, but Lalami's version is chillingly original, echoing widespread fears about the abuse of surveillance technology, and she balances high-concept speculative elements with deep character work. This surreal story feels all too plausible.
