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Available August 15, 2023

In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is a spellbinding novel, alive with feeling and discovery. Plunkett orchestrates an enrapturing story of a woman and mother tethered to a reality she would rather escape with bold jumps in time, nuanced observation, and flights of imagination. A book as much about the mundanities that trap us as it is about creativity’s promise of freedom, In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is an absolutely brilliant feat. I can’t wait to see what Plunkett does next.”
—Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch

“Genevieve Plunkett’s In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is an engrossing read that takes readers into the heart of what it means to be a mother, a wife, a creative being, a human with a heart that longs for more. Plunkett’s prose sparkles in every paragraph and kept me turning the pages long after my bedtime. Most importantly, her nuanced treatment of the decisions that people managing mental illness must make every day will comfort, inspire, entertain, and enlighten readers.”
—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group

“In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is a beating heart of flowing paths and urgent questions: how do we tell the difference between our dreams, our fantasies, and our possible futures? How do we step from one life into another, not knowing if the earth under our feet will hold? In this sensitive, suspenseful novel, Genevieve Plunkett fearlessly dances between past and present, between wanting and having, between loves laced with cruelty and loves aching with tenderness and possibility.”
—Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts

“In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel is a truly brilliant novel. This is a story about madness and music, forbidden love, entrapment and escape–all written in Plunkett’s electric and propulsive prose. It’s the most compelling novel I’ve read all year; I couldn’t put it down. Stunning.”
—Anna Hogeland, author of The Long Answer

“In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel mesmerized me: the quicksilver music of its language, the keenness of its observation, the richness of its empathy. Plunkett has made her protagonist’s interior world into a whole lush landscape and filled it with desire, loss, tenderness, humor, and tragedy. The result is a novel full of wild, irresistible life.”
—Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson

Prepare Her

“Dreamlike, atmospheric stories that revel in haunting, protracted tension…Plunkett is a writer of such extraordinary power that she’s able to summon the unknowable chaos into spellbinding story.”

—Rachel Yoder, The New York Times Book Review

“Plunkett’s strength is in the patience and precision of her interior and exterior landscapes. Like horses, too, these stories are full of beauty and elegance but also inscrutability, with Plunkett content to braid scenes and images together and let the mystery of their relationships abide. Wistful tales rendered with delicate writing and powerful perception.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Plunkett hooks readers easily with carefully crafted first lines, drawing readers in with dead bodies, mysteries, and odd images. From there, the stories build momentum slowly, but precisely, spiraling out along tangential subplots.”

—Ian Macallen, Chicago Review of Books

“Genevieve Plunkett depicts the lives of women as they are really lived—with conflict and chaos, love and tenderness, and no small amount of confusion about what is supposed to come next. Each story reflects a different facet of the human condition, some glittering, some blinding, all shining a light on how impossible it can seem to figure out what it means to be alive, but also how worthwhile a pursuit it really is.”

—Kristin Iversen, Refinery29

“Plunkett’s striking debut puts a series of women’s interior lives in stark relief…Plunkett’s keen observations will pique readers, and the stories pay off with dividends.”

Publishers Weekly

“Plunkett’s writing is mesmerizing in its even pacing, crisp prose and minute character insights…The neatness and precision of Plunkett’s writing is well-suited for the quiet but emotionally deep nature of her characters, who straddle the line between a too-lucid understanding of the world and a longing to escape into the imaginative realm of the ever-evasive could-be.”

Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“[A] nuanced debut story collection…With bracing honesty, Plunkett’s richly drawn narratives bring emotional depth to the characters’ struggles and internal conflicts.”

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Genevieve Plunkett

Writer

Genevieve’s debut novel, IN THE LOBBY OF THE DREAM HOTEL, is available August 15, 2023 (Catapult). A recipient of an O. Henry Award, her short fiction can also be found in New England Review, Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Colorado Review, Literary Hub, and The Best Small Fictions 2018. She lives in Vermont.

genevieve plunkett
genevieve plunkett

Genevieve Plunkett

Writer

Genevieve’s debut novel, IN THE LOBBY OF THE DREAM HOTEL, is available August 15, 2023 (Catapult). A recipient of an O. Henry Award, her short fiction can also be found in New England Review, Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Colorado Review, Literary Hub, and The Best Small Fictions 2018. She lives in Vermont.

Listen to Genevieve read from her award-winning story, “Something for a Young Woman” 
Listen to Genevieve read from her award-winning story, “Something for a Young Woman” 

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