Laila Lalami

Laila Lalami is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent novel is The Dream Hotel.

Latest

  1. My Near-Future Dystopia

    Imagine a surveillance state powerful enough to incarcerate people for the wrong dreams. In 2025, it doesn’t feel like such a leap.

    Laila Lalami
    A hotel sign says “The Dream Hotel,” with surveillance cameras around it
    Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic

  2. A New Kind of Immigrant Novel

    Aria Aber’s debut about an Afghan German party girl in Berlin shows that there are plenty of ways to tell an outsider’s story.

    Laila Lalami
    A photo-illustration of a cut-out black-and-white photo of a young woman holding a camera, framed with rectangular 3-D lines in a collage style on a mustard-yellow background.
    Illustration by Najeebah Al-Ghadban