At first, they blame the air.

It’s an old idea, a poison in the ether, a danger carried in by the wind. A strange haze is seen drifting through town on that first night, the night the trouble begins. It arrives like weather, or like smoke, some say later, but no one can locate any fire. Some blame the drought which, for years, has been bleeding away the lake and browning the air with dust.  Whatever this is, it comes over the town quietly: a sudden drowsiness, a closing of the eyes. Most of the victims are found in their beds.

One night, in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her bedroom, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up.

She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics who carry the girl away, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital.

Then a second girl falls asleep, and a third, and panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town.

 Gorgeously written, The Dreamers is a breathtaking novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life—in our waking days and, perhaps even more, in our dreams.

With echoes of Douglas Coupland and Jeffrey Eugenides The Dreamers is a breath-taking novel that startles and provokes, about the possibilities contained within a human life—in our waking days and, perhaps even more, in our dreams.