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Dream State

'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style

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 AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK AND AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'The kind of book you don't want to put down' Oprah Winfrey
'[A] brilliantly panoramic tale of family ties' The Guardian
'A rare pleasure' Ron Charles, Washington Post
'Puchner's writing is almost flawless... moving, funny and utterly engrossing' The Times
'A reader can't help falling in head first' Boston Globe
'Gorgeous... It's being hailed by some as the next great American novel' BBC.com
'A totally involving and moving literary page-turner' Clare Chambers
'I loved Dream State. I did not stop reading it for three days straight' Jessie Burton

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.©2025 Eric Puchner Family Life Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Dream Law Montana

Critic reviews

A family history that feels monumental . . . The book's effect is hypnotically telescopic, a vision of people we come to know across decades. Puchner's manipulation of time is among his novel's most magical elements . . . 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 (Ron Charles)
An epic tale of paradise lost...[A] brilliantly panoramic tale of family ties. American author Eric Puchner's latest novel is a colossus: a vast, bright behemoth of a book, panoramic as the Montana skyline... he tells his tale so compellingly, so engagingly, with such warmth and humour, that it's not until you set the book down that you can appreciate the breadth and brilliance of what he's done.
A fresh spin on the [marriage] plot . . . A thoughtful meditation on the seismic impact of small decisions on human and earthly conditions. It couldn't be more timely
I 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, the American writer Eric Puchner's second novel, went somewhere I wasn't expecting...as climate change books go, Dream State deals with the issue cleverly and sensitively, allowing it to bubble under the surface of the action until its inconveniences start to look like disasters...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. (Laura Hackett)
Fresh, wise, funny, and compassionate . . . Cinematic from the outset, Dream State opens (just as if a circular lens were unscrewing) upon a beloved old family homestead, site of a doomed wedding - descriptions so warm and attentive, a reader can't help falling in head first . . . Dream State is a wonderful feast, and feat
Reports of the death of the Great American Novel have been vastly overstated . . . a decade-spanning epic that's already getting publishers excited is Eric Puchner's Dream State. It's set in Montana and traces how the events of one summer shape the lives of three friends and their children, who are vying to escape from their parents' legacies (The best books to look out for in 2025)
Masterfully built
A brilliant, sprawling epic as funny as it is devastating, Dream State unspools the aftermath of that summer over many years. I haven't been this dazzled by a novel in a long time (Most anticipated books of 2025)
All stars
Most relevant
Loved this book,, its timeline updates of a marriage. Cece and Garrett should never have been the centre of the story, but fate has other plans. It’s a moving portrait of a marriage. It’s a powerful story of one young man’s path to self-destruction, despite all the love and support from a father desperate to save him. A tale of atonement and seeking forgiveness… it’s a powerful and beautiful book. The narration is perfect and top notch.

Fantastic characters, great narration

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Very sad story, a great initial hook but the later chapters drifted slightly. Excellent on setting and scene.

Compelling family saga

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A really well told story about relationships and climate change and imperfect people! Definitely recommend to anyone who loves a good narrative ( and who doesn’t?)

Lovely story!

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I liked the interface between the experience of life and its disillusions and hopes and the degradation of beauty in terms of climate change.

Changing climates

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Beautifully realistic novel of the hopes, dreams, tragedies, losses and enormous tenderness and love that unfold throughout our lives. I loved this novel from the first word to the last. There are few authors who’s words melt so seamlessly into one’s psyche. Bravo!

Life Enhancing writing

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