Robert Grainier is a day labourer, and has been for as long as he can remember. It is the start of the twentieth century and the world is changing at a rapid place.

Adrift following the loss of the family, Grainier struggles to make sense of this strange new land. He travels and takes refuge in hills and mountains, bearing witness to deportations and new discoveries. As his mind begins to deteriorate, Grainier dreams of his life past and present, an everyman, yet no man, living through extraordinary times.

A short but sweeping novel that suffuses both the history and landscape of the American West, Train Dreams captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.