Dream State

'The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen' Sunday Times Style

By: Eric Puchner

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Paperback | 21 May 2026 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
Paperback

Dimensions(cm)
19.7 x 13.0 x 2.8

Paperback

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A love triangle. A family story. A book about the magnetic pull of friendship.

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.

About the Author

Eric Puchner is the author of the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of a California Book Award, and two collections of short stories. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Baltimore with his family.

Industry Reviews

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 Post

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 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

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