Nepal, March 14 -- Have you considered that your dreams could be 'farmed', too? Let me help with you the basics. To simplify it, 'data farming' is a process that helps analyse a particular dataset, connecting 'events' or 'occurrences' to imminent risks and outcomes. Now, consider this: What if an establishment manages to record your dreams, assessing if you're a potential threat to society or not, and in the case of the former, detains you?

Chilling. Far-fetched. Unheard of. But that's the idea Moroccan-American novelist Laila Lalami has explored in her latest work of fiction, The Dream Hotel (Bloomsbury), which was longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction.

When the novel's protagonist Sara T Hussein, returning home from a conf...