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 rare pleasure... 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' Ron Charles, Washington Post

'As funny as it is devastating... I haven't been this dazzled by a novel in a long time' Lit Hub

'Fresh, wise, funny, and compassionate....A reader can't help falling in head first' Boston Globe

'Already one of the year's best' People

''A totally involving and moving literary page-turner' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures and Shy Creatures

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

'A book of tears, laughter, longing, regrets and filled to the brim with life . . . a wonder' Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less

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.

Simultaneously following in the tradition of the great American novel and reinventing it from within, Dream State is at once an elegy to the endangered West, a study of the unholy catastrophe of marriage and a tender ode to the enduring beauty of friendship.

"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" - Washington Post

"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" - New York Times

"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" - Boston Globe

"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" - Independent

"Masterfully built" - Financial Times

"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" - 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" - BBC.com

"A moving, psychologically acute, formally surprising family saga . . . Sprawling and elegant-a novel that feels both old-fashioned and bracingly inventive" - Kirkus

"With interwoven perspectives, Puchner's layered saga is a deeply felt exploration of relationships and self-identity, and the imperfections hidden by the heart's pull" - Booklist

"The book wonders about the what-ifs in life - what if I married a different person, what if I took that job path, what if guys just talked to each other instead of just letting things sit quietly between them?" - NPR