--- description: Find out why "The Dream Hotel" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'The Dream Hotel' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd33cbf2fb987d985/6998cb871f670910ecf56ed7/100_Books_2025_The-Dream-Hotel-Laila-Lalami.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 12, 2025 # The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Sara Hussein is returning from a conference when officials from the Risk Assessment Administration detain her at LAX. In Laila Lalami’s mind-bending novel, data sourced from people’s dreams can be used against them—and the authorities have reason to believe that Sara is going to commit a crime against her husband. So they send her to a “retention center” where she must prove her innocence, and an unsettling narrative unfolds as Sara struggles to return home. The arrival of a new resident at the center upends things further as Lalami asks urgent questions about the intersections of surveillance, technology, and freedom. —_Olivia B. Waxman_ **_These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser._** **Buy Now:** _The Dream Hotel_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593317600 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/47FzOCB "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329495/the-dream-hotel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329495/the-dream-hotel/"},"headline":"The Dream Hotel","datePublished":"2025-11-12T13:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T01:02:27.782Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329495/the-dream-hotel/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","ecommerce","Special Project"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd33cbf2fb987d985/6998cb871f670910ecf56ed7/100_Books_2025_The-Dream-Hotel-Laila-Lalami.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd33cbf2fb987d985/6998cb871f670910ecf56ed7/100_Books_2025_The-Dream-Hotel-Laila-Lalami.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329495/the-dream-hotel/","name":"The Dream Hotel"}}]}] ```