An archivist with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles becomes ensnared in a dubious government surveillance program in Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel. Set several decades in the future, Lalami's bracingly resonant drama strikes at the very heart of the consumer privacy debate and the freedoms people forfeit to data-hungry conglomerates when we use their products.
Moroccan-American art historian Sara Hussein and her husband, Elias, are the parents of twin infants. When the twins were born, chronically sleep-deprived Sara signed up for a popular "Dreamsaver" implant that helped her get deep restorative sleep in just a few hours. The terms of service allow Dreamsaver access to users' dreams but, like most customers, especially exhausted new moms, Sara ignored the fine print.
The Dream Hotel opens at Madison, a remote women-only "retention" facility in Ellis, Calif. Sara is being held for observation under the jurisdiction of the Risk Assessment Administration, an agency tasked with reducing violent crime. It relies on algorithms to target individuals at risk of harming others. The RAA reviewed Sara's dream data after she arrived home from a business trip to London and determined that she was a threat to Elias. It matters not that a person has no control over their dreams. The RAA cares "only about the data, not about the truth."
Lalami (Conditional Citizens; The Other Americans) imbues her propulsive narrative with a sense of foreboding, and Sara's voice is captivating. Ideal for fans of Hum by Helen Phillips, The Dream Hotel is part of an emerging genre of literature exploring motherhood in an age of unforgiving, digitally enhanced surveillance. --Shahina Piyarali