The Dream Hotel

The Dream Hotel is set in the possible, terrifying near future, so it falls within the remit of speculative fiction. Its protagonist, Sara Hussein, is a Muslim Moroccan-American citizen who is detained at the airport upon re-entry into the country because her dreams have been flagged as holding potentially violent material. In this version of the future, dreams are surveilled and analysed and the state’s algorithm determines whether or not you need to be sent to a facility until you have eradicated your violent tendencies. We’re in the realm, in some ways, of the film Minority Report – but Lalami is focused in a very literary manner on the excavation of the self when it is subject to that kind of state surveillance. The potential to disassemble, to crumble, but then to reanimate the self. The novel is also very dark, witty and funny, and it’s populated by a cast of very interesting characters.