"Dream State is a delight...An exquisitely rendered novel about the vagaries of fate, and friendship, and love."&nbsp;--Alice McDermott, National Book Award winner and author of Absolution Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws' lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish&nbsp;planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked&nbsp;Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can't imagine anyone&nbsp;more ill-suited for the task--an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie's&nbsp;shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips,&nbsp;and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel,&nbsp;well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett's friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she's dreamed of and a life she's never imagined. The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents' story.&nbsp;Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores&nbsp;what it means to live with the mistakes of the past--both our own and the ones we've inherited.&nbsp;&nbsp; Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the&nbsp;American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird&nbsp;weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.

Dream State: Oprah's Book Club: A Novel (Oprahs Book Club 2.0)

Literature & Fiction

Puchner, Eric

Literary

DOUBLEDAY

Dream State

New York: Doubleday

A first collection by a Pushcart Prize-winning young writer includes "Children of God," in which a loner becomes a caretaker for two mentally challenged men; "Essay #3: Leda and the Swan," in which a lonely high school girl longs for love; and "Child's Play," in which a pack of boys wreaks havoc on Halloween night. 25,000 first printing.

Music Through the Floor: Stories

United States

Scribner

Includes a new story, "Body Language"! Now in paperback, Eric Puchner's celebrated debut collection, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, established him as one of our most brilliant and promising new literary voices. Writing from an impressive range of perspectives -- men and women, children and adults, immigrants and tourists -- Puchner deftly exposes the dark, tender undersides of his characters with arresting beauty and precision. Here are people fumbling for identity in a dehumanizing world, captured in moments that are hilarious, shocking, and transcendent, sometimes all at once. Unfailingly true, surprisingly moving, and impossible to forget, these stories make up an extraordinary and strikingly original collection.

Warren Ziller moved his family to Southern California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of the 1980s. But the Zillersâ€™ American dream is about to be rudely interrupted. Warren has squandered their savings on a bad real estate investment, which he conceals from his wife, Camille, who misreads his secrecy as a sign of an affair. Their children, Dustin, Lyle, and Jonas, have grown as distant as satellites, too busy with their own betrayals and rebellions to notice their parentsâ€™ distress. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to Warrenâ€™s abandoned housing development in the desert. In this comically bleak new home, each must reckon with whatâ€™s led them there and whoâ€™s to blameâ€”and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together. 
With penetrating insights into modern life and an uncanny eye for everyday absurdities, Eric Puchner delivers a wildly funny, heartbreaking, and thoroughly original portrait of an American family.

Model Home: A Novel

Humor & Satire

Warren Ziller moved his family to Southern California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of the 1980s. But the Zillers’ American dream is about to be rudely interrupted. Warren has squandered their savings on a bad real estate investment, which he conceals from his wife, Camille, who misreads his secrecy as a sign of an affair. Their children, Dustin, Lyle, and Jonas, have grown as distant as satellites, too busy with their own betrayals and rebellions to notice their parents’ distress. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to Warren’s abandoned housing development in the desert. In this comically bleak new home, each must reckon with what’s led them there and who’s to blame—and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together. With penetrating insights into modern life and an uncanny eye for everyday absurdities, Eric Puchner delivers a wildly funny, heartbreaking, and thoroughly original portrait of an American family.

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Warren Ziller moved his family to California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of Southern California in the 1980s. But his American dream has been rudely interrupted. Despite their affection for one another-the "slow, jokey, unrehearsed vaudeville" they share at home-Warren; his wife, Camille; and their three children have veered into separate lives, as distant as satellites. Worst of all, Warren has squandered the family's money on a failing real estate venture. As Warren desperately tries to conceal his mistake, his family begins to sow deceptions of their own. Camille attributes Warren's erratic behavior to an affair and plots her secret revenge; seventeen-year-old Dustin falls for his girlfriend's troubled younger sister; teen misanthrope Lyle begins sleeping with a security guard who works at the gatehouse; and eleven-year-old Jonas becomes strangely obsessed with a kidnapped girl. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move into one of the houses in Warren's abandoned development in the middle of the desert. Marooned in a less-than-model home, each must reckon with what's led them there and who's to blame-and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together. Subtly ambitious, brimming with the humor and unpredictability of life, Model Home delivers penetrating insights into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect, from a writer "uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life" (Los Angeles Times).

Tantor Audio

Model Home: Library Edition

Tantor Media, Inc.

From the award-winning author of Music Through the Floor and Model Home, a riveting and profoundly moving story collection by a writer “uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life” (Los Angeles Times). A boy on the edge of adolescence fears his mother might be a robot; a psychotically depressed woman is entrusted with taking her niece and nephew trick-or-treating; a reluctant dad brings his baby to a coke-fueled party; a teenage boy tries to prevent his mother from putting his estranged father’s dogs to sleep. Ranging from a youth arts camp to an aging punk band’s reunion tour, from a dystopian future where parents no longer exist to a ferociously independent bookstore, Last Day on Earth revolves around the endlessly complex, frequently surreal system that is family. Eric Puchner, the author hailed as “technically gifted and emotionally insightful” (The New York Times Book Review), and someone who “puts the story back in short story” (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review), delivers a gloriously original, utterly memorable collection that invokes both the comedy and tragedy of our lifelong endeavor to come of age.

Last Day on Earth: Stories

From the award-winning author of Music Through the Floor and Model Home, a riveting and profoundly moving story collection by a writer “uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life” (Los Angeles Times). A boy on the edge of adolescence fears his mother might be a robot; a psychotically depressed woman is entrusted with taking her niece and nephew trick-or-treating; a reluctant dad brings his baby to a debaucherous party; a teenage boy tries to prevent his mother from putting his estranged father’s dogs to sleep. Ranging from a youth arts camp to an aging punk band’s reunion tour, from a dystopian future where parents no longer exist to a ferociously independent bookstore, Last Day on Earth revolves around the endlessly complex, frequently surreal system that is family. Eric Puchner, hailed as “technically gifted and emotionally insightful” (The New York Times Book Review), and someone who “puts the story back in short story” (San Francisco Chronicle), delivers a gloriously original, utterly memorable collection that evokes both the comedy and tragedy of our lifelong endeavor to come of age.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Puchner, Eric. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Puchner, Eric

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Puchner, Eric. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dream State: Oprah's Book Club: A Novel (Oprahs Book Club 2.0)

Dream State

Music Through the Floor: Stories

Music Through the Floor: Stories

Model Home: A Novel

Model Home: A Novel

Model Home: A Novel

Model Home: Library Edition

Last Day on Earth: Stories

Last Day on Earth: Stories