The Lost Dreamer

Book

The Lost Dreamer

by Lizz Huerta

A lush, immersive debut fantasy about a group of women whose way of life is threatened by a new king; a fierce celebration of community, sisterhood, and finding our power. Indir is a Dreamer, descended from a long line of seers; able to see beyond reality, she carries the rare gift of Dreaming truth. But when the beloved king dies, his son has no respect for this time-honored tradition. King Alcan wants an opportunity to bring the Dreamers to a permanent endโ€”an opportunity Indir will give him if he discovers the two secrets she is struggling to keep. As violent change shakes Indirโ€™s world to its core, she is forced to make an impossible choice: fight for her home or fight to survive. Saya is a seer, but not a Dreamerโ€”she has never been formally trained. Her mother exploits her daughterโ€™s gift, passing it off as her own as they travel from village to village, never staying in one place too long. Almost as if theyโ€™re running from something. Almost as if theyโ€™re being hunted. When Saya loses the necklace sheโ€™s worn since birth, she discovers that seeing isnโ€™t her only giftโ€”and begins to suspect that everything she knows about her life has been a carefully-constructed lie. As she comes to distrust the only family sheโ€™s ever known, Saya will do what sheโ€™s never done before, go where sheโ€™s never been, and risk it all in the search of answers. With a detailed, supernaturally-charged setting and topical themes of patriarchal power and female strength, Lizz Huerta's The Lost Dreamer brings an ancient world to life, mirroring the challenges of our modern one.

About the Author

About Lizz Huerta

Lizz Huerta is a widely-admired Mexi-Rican short story writer and essayist, published in Lightspeed, The Cut, The Portland Review, The Rumpus, Miami Rail, and more. Her short story โ€œThe Wallโ€ is included in the anthology A Peopleโ€™s Future of the United States. Huerta has also been a 2018 Bread Loaf Fellow, a five-time VONA Fellow, and the winner of the LUMINA fiction contest, selected by Roxane Gay, who called her writing โ€œa menacing inescapable seduction.โ€ She has appeared on CSPANโ€™s BookTV to discuss the erasure of Mexican American Studies in Arizona, and has taught creative writing to homeless youth through San Diego nonprofit So Say We All.