Train Dreams is a novella by Denis Johnson. It was published on August 30, 2011, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It was originally published, in slightly different form, in the Summer 2002 issue of The Paris Review. The novella details the life of Robert Grainier, an American railroad laborer, who lives the life of a hermit until he marries and has a daughter, only to lose both wife and child in a forest fire, and sink into isolation again. The novella won an O. Henry Award in 2003. It also won the 2002 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. It was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but no award was given that year. A film adaptation of the same name was released on Netflix in 2025.
Adaptations (1)
Train Dreams was adapted into a 2025 film.
Train Dreams2025 · film · 102 min · dir. Clint Bentley · IMDb ↗A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
