Dream State by Eric Puchner

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.

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

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.

18 Feb 2025
 

Dream State: ‘The Paper Palace meets Jonathan Franzen’ Sunday Times Style by Eric Puchner ISBN 9781399744133