by Laila Lalami
First published 2025
Sara steps off her flight from an overseas conference and finds herself pulled aside by Risk Assessment Administration agents. Their surveillance algorithm has analyzed her dream data and concluded she poses an immediate threat to her husband. The agents escort her to a retention facility for mandatory observation. Sara expects to spend twenty-one days proving her harmlessness, then return home. The reality proves far more complex. The facility houses other "dangerous dreamers" caught in the same algorithmic net. Staff enforce rules that change without warning. Each violation extends a resident's stay. Sara realizes that good behavior alone will not secure her release. She must navigate an unpredictable system designed to justify its own existence. The other detainees become allies and cautionary tales as Sara fights to reunite with her family. The cost of freedom grows steeper with each passing day.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, 21st-century, political-thriller, algorithms
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Algeria
Period: 21st-century
336 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury Circus
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness