How the Dead Dream

T. has always kept his distance from people, including his loving but vacant parents. While not necessarily antisocial, T. is far more interested in money and the accumulation of wealth than interpersonal relationships. As a wealthy young real-estate developer in Los Angeles, T. lives an isolated life, unaware of just how lonely he actually feels. One night, while driving to Las Vegas, he hits a coyote on the highway. This experience unnerves T. and inspires a spiritual transformation that leads him to question his financial pursuits for the first time in his life, to finally fall in love with a woman, and to begin sneaking into the local zoo, where he finds solace in the presence of endangered species. A beautiful, heart-wrenching tale, How the Dead Dream is also a riveting commentary on community in the modern suburban landscape and how the lives of animals are affected by it.

Lydia Millet is the author of five previous novels, most recently the acclaimed Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. The recipient of the PEN-USA Award for Fiction, she is an essayist and screenwriter as well as a novelist and lives with her husband, conservationist Kieran Suckling, and their daughter.