Dream State: Oprah's Book Club

By Eric Puchner

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

"The story of relationships built and broken, mistakes inherited and repeated, and the beauty of trying again....already one of the year's best." -People

Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws' lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can't imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task--an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie's shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett's friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she's dreamed of and a life she's never imagined.

The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents' story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past--both our own and the ones we've inherited.

Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385550669
• ISBN13: 9780385550666
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Evolution of Lifetime Relationships

Engaging novel with believable characters going through life. Through a dozen characters, three the central characters, who are friends, spouses, parents, and children, the book deconstructs complex life experiences. The stories are lighthearted, with interjections of darker stories that linger throughout the characters lives. Do you have complicated romance stories in your life? In there. Do you have stories of loss of parents, children, friends? In there. Do you have personal stories of career paths, mental health, addiction, sickness, aging, dementia, and life in general? In there. I enjoyed, reflected, and would recommend to any person as it is about human relationships regardless of place and time.