A gripping, inventive and terrifying speculative mystery about privacy, freedom and survival – from the Pulitzer Prize and Booker Prize nominated author

* LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 *
*A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK MARCH 2025*

‘A gripping, Kafkaesque foray into an all-too-plausible future’ JENNIFER EGAN
‘Extraordinary’ RUMAAN ALAM
‘Absolutely unputdownable’ SANDRA NEWMAN

Sara is returning home from a conference abroad when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside at the airport. Using data from her dreams, their algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming her husband. For his safety, she must be transferred to a retention centre, and kept under observation for twenty-one days.

But as Sara arrives to be monitored alongside other dangerous dreamers, she discovers that with every deviation from the facility’s strict and ever-shifting rules, their stays can be extended – and that getting home to her family is going to cost much more than just three weeks of good behaviour . . .

The Dream Hotel is a gripping speculative mystery about the seductive dangers of the technologies that are supposed to make our lives easier. As terrifying as it is inventive, it explores how well we can ever truly know those around us – even with the most invasive surveillance systems in place.

"Skewers notions of supposed privacy and freedom ... [A] gripping allegory for our times" - Observer

"Stellar ... There are echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale here – as Margaret Atwood does in that book, Lalami builds a convincing near-future dystopia out of current events ... But Lalami’s scenario is unique and well-imagined – interspersed report sheets, transcripts, and terms-of-service lingo have a realistic, poignant lyricism that exposes the cruel bureaucracy in which Sara is trapped ... And the story exposes the particular perniciousness of big tech’s capacity to exploit our every movement, indeed practically every thought ... Striking ... An engrossing and troubling dystopian tale" - Kirkus