In the summer of 1991, Hannah Gavener is fourteen. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. Over the next decade and a half, as Hannah moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, she finds that the answers to love's most bewildering questions become more rather than less complicated. At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soul mate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a man who might not love you back, are you being brave, or pathetic? The other relationships in Hannah's life are equally puzzling. There's her father, whose stubbornness she realizes she has inherited. There's her gorgeous cousin, Fig, whose misbehaviour is both endearing and annoying. There's Henry, Fig's boyfriend, who Hannah first falls for in college. And then there are the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who adore her and who break her heart. Full of honesty and humour, "The Man of My Dreams" is an unnervingly insightful and beautifully written examination of the outside forces and personal choices that make us who we are. 'The "Man of My Dreams" is so free of tricks, the honesty is so startling, you feel there's a writer here who isn't trying to beguile you but to lay out some plain, raw truth about emotions and sex. This is a courageous, refreshing novel' - Alice Munro.