Introduction

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY ? From Laila Lalami—the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a “maestra of literary fiction” (NPR)—comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

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Discussion Questions

Added by Pauline

1. As The Dream Hotel begins, Sara is unexpectedly detained at the airport as she returns from a work conference. At first she’s incredulous, then annoyed, and angry. Have you ever been in a similar situation and how did you react?

2. As an exhausted new mother, Sara got a neuroprosthetic implant that promised would help her feel more alert on short periods of sleep. But this implant also tracked her dreams. What does The Dream Hotel have to say about the benefits and dangers of tracking and surveillance in our world?

3. What are some of the differing reactions of Sara and her fellow detainees to being held? Which of their attitudes and perspectives do you relate to the most?

4. Sara spends a great deal of time daydreaming and reflecting on her upbringing and childhood. What family history and personal experiences do you think you’d think about if you were in a similar situation?

5. The Dream Hotel briefly switches out of Sara’s point of view into that of Julie. What did you think of the switch and what the purpose of it was?

6. Sara’s cousin tells her that Sara’s father thinks she was detained because she is difficult. Do you think this is a fair assessment? How do you think Sara’s “difficult” nature helps and hurts her over the course of the story?

7. How do you think The Dream Hotel compares to other dystopian or speculative fiction books (or movies) you might have read or watched? What do you think books like that reveal about the resilience of the human spirit, and about crime and punishment?

With thanks to Jen Ryland

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»	Jen Ryland's character guide and reader's guide

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