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NATIONAL BESTSELLER – READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY

From Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Laila Lalami, acclaimed by NPR as a master storyteller, comes a provocative and groundbreaking novel exploring a woman’s desperate struggle for freedom in a near future where even dreams face constant observation.

Sara has just arrived at LAX airport after returning from an overseas conference when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration interrupt her routine, claiming their algorithm, fueled by data extracted from her dreams, has revealed that she’s destined to commit a serious crime. Specifically, their projections warn that Sara is an imminent threat to the person she cherishes most: her husband. To protect him, she must submit to 21 days of constant surveillance.

Sara is swiftly taken to a retention center housing other accused “dreamers”—all women, each forced to repeatedly prove their innocence of potential crimes. The rules of the facility are harsh and continually changing, and for every minor infraction the women’s sentences are extended indefinitely. Days stretch easily into months with Sara seemingly no closer to release. Then suddenly, a new inmate arrives whose presence upends the entire order in the detention center, inspiring Sara to confront the powerful corporations behind the relentless surveillance that robbed her of liberty.

Chilling, timely, and sharply observed, The Dream Hotel skillfully tackles society’s complicated relationship with technology and the subtle ways it imprisons us even as it makes our lives more convenient. At its core, Lalami raises profound questions: How much of ourselves must remain private if we are truly to remain free? Can even the most pervasive forms of surveillance ever fully comprehend the complexities of human identity?