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An Oprah’s Book Club Pick and an instant New York Times bestseller

‘Moving, funny and utterly engrossing’ The Sunday Times, Five Reads for the Beach

‘The kind of book you don’t want to put down’ Oprah Winfrey
‘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 breadth and brilliance of what he’s done’ The Guardian

‘I love a slightly oversized American novel, one that’s going to take you on a journey’ Times Radio

‘A transporting wonder… A rare pleasure’ Ron Charles, Washington Post

‘A totally involving and moving literary page-turner’ Clare Chambers, author of Shy Creatures

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.

‘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

‘I loved Dream State. I did not stop reading it for three days straight’ Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist

Publisher Review

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 * Independent * A book of tears, laughter, longing, regrets and filled to the brim with life. Dream State is a wonder of character and craft -- Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LESS Dream State is a masterpiece. A glittering, evocative achievement -- Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON Dream State is a gorgeous exploration of time, grief, love, and the way that the commitments we make turn us into the people we become . . . brilliant -- Danielle Evans, author of THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS Dream State delivers everything I want in a novel: a love triangle, a moving friendship story, a delicious setting (including some of the best skiing scenes I've ever read in my life) and rumination about how we search for meaning in our lives . . . an absolute masterpiece -- Elin Hilderbrand, author of THE PERFECT COUPLE Dream State explores several monumental themes - love, family, identity, human transience, climate change - but always with a scrupulous attention to the fate of individuals, and always with a powerful sense of intimate connection . . . a remarkable achievement -- Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate Eric Puchner has populated his engrossing and deeply affecting novel with characters so complicated and sympathetic that we want - we need - to know how their lives will turn out, and what will happen to the glorious and fragile landscape they inhabit -- Francine Prose, author of READING LIKE A WRITER Dream State is a delight. Every scene, every character, every sentence, is infused with Eric Puchner's intelligence and wit. An exquisitely rendered novel about the vagaries of fate, and friendship, and love -- Alice McDermott, National Book Award winner and author of ABSOLUTION Funny and wild, here is some of the most beautiful writing that I have ever read -- Matthew Klam, author of WHO IS RICH? Lush, immersive, devastating, and stunningly alive, Dream State did the thing the very best novels do: pulled me relentlessly into its characters, its setting, concerns, losses, and triumphs, only to let me loose again with a sharper, clearer vision of the world outside -- Lynn Steger Strong, author of THE FLOAT TEST 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 * Literary Hub * A gorgeous, gripping epic that chronicles 50 years of change in friendships, families and the surrounding landscape. It's being hailed by some as the next great American novel -- 40 of the most exciting books to read in 2025 * BBC.com *