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Robert Grainer is a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.
Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West—its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders—the new novella by the National Book Award-winning author of Tree of Smoke captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/14/2026)
In addition to what I mentioned above, I am listening to Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. It is a short two-hour fiction audiobook narrated by Will Patton (one of many who narrated Lonesome Dove - he is wonderfully suited for Westerns). U...
-Gabi_J
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (12/25/2025)
I am reading Cat by Rebecca van Laer (and Mittens and Solstice approve!) I read The Gathering by Anne Enright last week, and next up is Train Dreams by Denis Johnson.
-Evonne_Benedict
What are you reading this week? (9/04/2025)
I've wondered about Denis Johnson's Train Dreams. Have always been intrigued by the cover.
-Lana_Maskus
"Starred Review. This svelte stand-alone has the virtue of being a gem in itself, and, for the uninitiated, a perfect introduction to Johnson." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Fans of the literary end of historical fiction (with a dash of magical realism)... or authors like Bret Harte or Cormac McCarthy should appreciate this one. Highly recommended." - Library Journal
"Johnson draws on history and tall tales to adroitly infuse one contemplative man's solitary life with the boundless mysteries of nature and the havoc of humankind's breakneck technological insurgency, creating a concentrated, reverberating tale of ravishing solemnity and molten lyricism." - Booklist
This information about Train Dreams was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Poet, playwright and author Denis Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany in 1949 and was raised in Tokyo, Manila and Washington. He holds a masters' degree from the University of Iowa and has received many awards including a Lannan Fellowship in Fiction in (1993), a Whiting Writer's Award (1986) and the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the Paris Review for Train Dreams. He is best known for his collection of short stories, Jesus' Son.
His first published writing was a collection of poetry, The Man Among The Seals, published in 1969 when he was 20 years old and enrolled at the University of Iowa, where he was mentored by Raymond Carver. At 21 he was first admitted to a psychiatry ward for alcohol addiction, having started a lengthy love affair with substance abuse at the age of 14 ...
If you liked Train Dreams, try these:
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As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America's farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight.
by Anthony McCann
Published 2019
An "epic exploration" of the 2016 right-wing Oregon Occupation - "an excellent microcosm by which we might better understand our difficult national history and distressing political moment" (Maggie Nelson).
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