The Dream Hotel : Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025

Charlotte says about The Dream Hotel:
"Set in an uncomfortably near future where our dreams are analysed, scrutinized and even used to convict us, The Dream Hotel follows a narrator who’s found herself a victim to this arbitrary system. This is a read that will keep you on your toes through its tense and quick-paced passages, whilst also making you confront some big questions about surveillance, autonomy and truth; all told through the eyes of a questionably reliable narrator!"

Sara is at the airport, travelling home from a work conference. Out of nowhere she’s pulled aside by agents from the Risk Assessment Administration. Their algorithm has determined that she’s an immediate threat to her husband, and must be kept under observation at a retention centre for twenty-one days.

The evidence? Data collected from her dreams.

When she arrives at the centre, she discovers that each deviation from their strict and ever-changing rules – loitering in the hallway, a ‘non-compliant hairstyle’ – results in her stay being extended. Desperate to return to her family, Sara must make a choice. Does she play by their rules, or risk taking matters into her own hands?

Author: Lalami, Laila

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 18 June 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 336 pages
129 x 199 x 25 | 236g