The Dreamers (novella)

The Dreamers is a novella by Karen Thompson Walker, published in 2019. It centers on a fictional college town in Southern California where a strange illness causes its victims to fall into a persistent and profound sleep, marked by intense and shared dreaming. The story explores the effects of this phenomenon on the individuals and the community as a whole.

The narrative is told from multiple perspectives, including those of college students, professors, and town residents. It delves into themes of connection, isolation, the nature of consciousness, and the fragile social contract that binds communities together. As the sleeping sickness spreads, the town is quarantined, forcing its inhabitants to confront their fears, desires, and the shifting realities of their world.

The novella garnered attention for its exploration of anxieties surrounding contagion and social breakdown, resonating with readers during periods of global uncertainty. While rooted in a science-fiction premise, The Dreamers is ultimately a character-driven story that examines the human response to the unknown and the power of shared experience, even in altered states of consciousness. The ambiguity of the illness's origin and cure contribute to the novella's unsettling and thought-provoking atmosphere.