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“ “A masterpiece. Eric Puchner returns with an ambitious and deeply moving multigenerational novel that;follows three lifelong friends and the betrayal at the center of their entwined fates. 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 she spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and her long-held expectations;for her life with Charlie begin to crumble. 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 makes the bravest decision of her life: to run off;with the groom’s best friend. Nine years later, Garrett is a wildlife biologist married to Cece. Charlie has invited them both;back into his life. But has he truly forgiven Garrett? And can Cece, battling regret, resist the ghostly;pull of the life she almost had? Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming;Montana, Dream State explores the repercussions of Cece and Garrett’s betrayal, not only on the three;friends themselves but on their children, Lana and Jasper, unlikely soulmates who must grapple with;mistakes from the past--both their own, and the fallout they’ve inherited.; Written with delicacy, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the;American west,
About the author
ERIC PUCHNER is the author of the story collection Music Through the Floor, a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award; the novel Model Home, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction; and a second short story collection, Last Day on Earth. His short stories and personal essays have appeared in GQ, Granta, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and more. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore with his wife, the novelist Katharine Noel, and their two children.
