A Woman Is Under Surveillance for a Crime She's Yet to Commit in Laila Lalami's NovelThe Dream Hotel(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Laila Lalami and the cover of ‘The Dream Hotel’.Photo:Beowulf Sheehan; Pantheon Books

Beowulf Sheehan; Pantheon Books

Laila Lalami.Beowulf Sheehan

Beowulf Sheehan

Sara is transferred to a retention center, full of other dreamers who are all trying to prove they’re innocent. The arrival of a new resident, however, upends the facility, and sends Sara on a journey alongside the organizations that put her under watch.Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.The Dream Hotel, per its publisher, explores the impact of the “seductive nature of technology” and the risks of privacy.Read below for an exclusive excerpt fromThe Dream Hotel.

‘The Dream Hotel’ By Laila Lalami.Pantheon Books

Pantheon Books

The dream cedes to reality, or perhaps it’s the other way around, and she pulls herself from the tangle of sheets and stumbles out into the hallway. There she waits, barefoot on the cold floor, until the bell stops ringing. She stands still, limbs straight, eyes fixed on a point in the middle distance; if Madison has taught her anything, it is that compliance begins in the body. The trick is to hide any flicker of personality or hint of difference. From white domes on the ceiling, the cameras watch.The others line up alongside her, rubbing sleep from their eyes, squinting under the chrome-plated lights. The fixtures date back to 1939, when Madison was a public elementary school, enrolling as many as 400 children every fall. Back then, the town of Ellis had a farming tool factory, a movie theater, a thriving pool hall, two modest hotels and natural hot springs that attracted tourists from 90 miles away in Los Angeles. A century later, the factory had shuttered, and the springs were dry. The school sat empty, its walls spotting with mold, until the city council sold it to Safe-X. Because of legal constraints on renovation, Madison’s new owners had to keep the original lighting and metalwork, but they threw away the blackboards, stripped the state maps and alphabet posters from the walls, auctioned off the furniture and converted the second floor into a ward.When they brought her to her cot in 208, the smell of industrial floor cleaner made her ill. She wrestled with the window, her knuckles turning white before she noticed that it had been welded shut. But these days the smell of synthetic pine doesn’t bother her as much. Living with strangers in bare rooms, showering next to them in open stalls, standing behind them in line for the comm pods — all these have taught her to be alert to more intimate scents. From 4 feet away, she can smell the cream her roommate rubs on her skin to treat the rash she developed in the jail.

source: people.com