Sunrise

by Téa Obreht

Three lives, one hundred years, one ghost town: an explosive novel about a mysterious place called Sunrise, where the secrets of the past refuse to stay buried, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: Esquire, Literary Hub, Today

In 2024, Nina’s small-engine plane crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Her boyfriend Ben, who was flying it, is nowhere to be found. Lost and freezing on the shore, Nina is armed with only a few old protein bars, a phone with no service, and a vague hope of rescue. It is up to her to survive in the vast wilderness. But then she stumbles upon Sunrise—a town of the Old West that is strangely well maintained, but seemingly abandoned. A place that holds the missing link to a ghost story one hundred years in the making.

In 2003, Sand Daw’s golden boy Coll is putting the finishing touches on the town’s annual historical reenactment. But when an upstart would-be author comes to him with questions about one of Sunrise’s most beloved figures, it threatens to upend everything he thought he knew about the city—and himself.

In 1902, town founder, gunslinger, and legendary pulp hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and quickly takes charge of a group searching for a missing boy. But who really is Vargas? What does he know about the boy’s disappearance? And why has he returned after such a long absence?

These three strangers are separated by time and circumstance. But Sunrise’s many secrets are like gunpowder: quiet, contained, until they encounter a spark. Magisterial and suspenseful, Téa Obreht's novel challenges the myths we think we of heroes and villains, of the people and places to which we lay claim, and, most of all, of our own lives.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Ghosts, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication August 11, 2026

About the author

Téa Obreht was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and spent her childhood in Cyprus and Egypt before eventually immigrating to the United States in 1997. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, The New York Times, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Non-Required Reading. Her first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, was published by Random House in March 2011. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. Téa Obreht lives in Ithaca, New York.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read Téa Obreht’s three previous novels and enjoyed them all, particularly The Tiger’s Wife and Inland, The Morningside a little less so. While this novel falls closer to the latter for me, there is still much to admire. Obreht is an extremely talented writer and she can certainly spin a tale filled with surprising twists and turns. She does that with her new novel Sunrise.

Obreht juggles three different stories from three different time periods - 2024, 2003 and 1902. The novel can be described as a mystery, an adventure tale, a survival story and a myth-busting revisionist western. That’s a lot of balls in the air, but there’s a great pleasure to be had in seeing how they all fall. I kept wondering exactly what Obreht was up to and where she was taking me. How will the stories eventually connect, as I knew of course they would? While this might confuse or try the patience of certain readers, I enjoy putting the pieces together in novels like these.

As she did in Inland, Obreht does an impressive job at rendering a sense of place. In fact I’ll steal from my own review of Inland: “Her imagery is nothing short of brilliant and so necessary in a novel that is as much about the land as it is the people.” She does the same here and it is one of the major strengths of her writing. She presents a clear vision of a ghost town and the surrounding landscape that is both eerie and beautiful.

I don’t think Sunrise is perfect or, in my opinion, as good as her first two novels. It’s a little uneven in places and there were a couple scenes that I didn’t think were necessary, particularly one towards the end of the novel. There are back stories that, while adding depth to the characters, don’t always feel needed. Still, overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it. If you’re an Obreht fan, as I am, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It’s a good read, it’s a good ride.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley.

[Jaydyn Haught · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Téa Ohbreht’s latest book Sunrise was compelling from the start. The three different points of view add depth to the story in a way that makes this such a page turner! Each chapter feels like a thread unraveling until Nina brings all of the strings together in the end. Very clever!

[Kristina Nichole]

Just saw People's cover reveal and read the blurb...

Patiently waiting for this ARC to be available on NetGalley

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunrise by Téa Obreht was a thoroughly enjoyable novel and one that surprised me with the way its story was constructed. At its heart, it tells two separate stories set in different time periods, each compelling in its own right. As the novel unfolds, those narratives gradually move toward one another until they converge in a deeply satisfying climax. Woven between them is a third story, almost like a folktale or legend, that quietly threads its way through both timelines and ultimately proves to be just as important. It's an ambitious structure, but Obreht pulls it off beautifully.

What impressed me most was how naturally these different threads came together. Rather than feeling like disconnected stories, each narrative enriches the others, adding layers of meaning and perspective that aren't immediately obvious. I found myself eager to return to each storyline, wondering not only what would happen next but also how everything would eventually connect. By the time the pieces began to fall into place, it felt earned rather than forced.

Obreht's writing is another major strength. Her prose is rich and evocative without ever becoming overwhelming, and she has a wonderful ability to create a vivid sense of place. Whether she's describing landscapes, relationships, or quieter moments of reflection, her writing has an immersive quality that made it easy to lose myself in the novel.

The characters are equally memorable. Each feels fully realized, with their own motivations, flaws, and emotional journeys. Because the novel spends so much time developing them, I became genuinely invested in their lives and the choices they made. That emotional investment made the eventual convergence of the storylines all the more impactful.

I also appreciated that Sunrise never feels like it's showing off its unusual structure. It would have been easy for a novel built this way to become a puzzle that values cleverness over storytelling, but that's never the case here. The intricate narrative serves the characters and themes rather than overshadowing them, making the novel feel both intellectually engaging and emotionally satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Tea Obreht for granting me access to a digital ARC of this title.

[Jenn]

DNF. The first part with the stranded woman was mildly interesting, but the second part was boring me, so I'm out.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of advance copy received from NetGalley.

Okay, okay, I know I keep saying this, but this was hands down one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Books like this are the reason I read. Most of the books I pick up are good. I enjoy them and rate them highly. But every once in a while I come across something that completely blows me away, and Sunrise was one of those books.

I flew through this in a single day. Téa Obreht brilliantly weaves together three timelines, 1903, 2003, and 2024, into a story that seems impossible to connect at first, until everything clicks into place in the most satisfying way.

In 2024, Nina is stranded near the abandoned ghost town of Sunrise after the small plane her boyfriend is flying crashes in the Wyoming wilderness. In 1903, Sunrise is a thriving frontier town, where local hero Anton Vargas returns in search of a man known as Preacher. And in 2003, local historian Colin hopes to revive interest in the long-forgotten town through an ambitious historical reenactment.

Part thriller, part Western, and part mystery, this novel is filled with intrigue. The ghost town itself feels like a living presence, hiding secrets that echo across generations. I was completely captivated from beginning to end, and watching the three storylines gradually converge was one of the most rewarding reading experiences I’ve had in a long time.

It was simply outstanding. If you’re looking for a novel that’s beautifully written, wholly original, and impossible to put down, I can’t recommend this one enough.

[Sue]

Not for me.
I liked the first section - this is like 5 short stories supposedly woven together somehow but halfway through the second section it completely fell apart for me.

[Susan Poer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slow burn, covering three different stories, over three different timelines, a mystery that is at once a survival story, a revisionist Western, and a meditation on the stories we inherit and we choose to believe. A great concept in theory, especially as the 3 stories come together, but it just takes a long time to get there.

All 3 stories take place in the Wyoming ghost town of Sunrise. In 2024, Nina Terzić survives a devastating plane crash in the mountains, only to discover the seemingly abandoned town while searching for help. In 2003, amateur historian Coll prepares the community's annual historical reenactment when unsettling questions about the town's celebrated founder begin to unravel its mythology. In 1902, legendary gunslinger Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise to help search for a missing child, setting into motion events that will echo across generations. What initially appears to be three separate narratives gradually converges into an intricate examination of memory, identity, and the elusive nature of truth.

The descriptive writing is beautiful, and transforms the Wyoming wilderness into a living force that is equal parts breathtaking and menacing. The ghost town itself becomes more than a setting, but repository of forgotten histories, and legends. Every abandoned building and windswept street seems to hold another secret waiting to be uncovered.

The novel's shifting perspectives require attentive reading, but Obreht rewards that investment with remarkable emotional and thematic depth. Nina's desperate struggle for survival provides immediate tension, while Coll's contemporary storyline explores the fragility of historical memory and the ways communities construct narratives. Anton Vargas, meanwhile, emerges as a compellingly complex figure whose legend proves far more complicated than folklore would suggest. Obreht thoughtfully dismantles Western archtypes, revealing how myths often obscure the realities beneath.

What makes Sunrise especially compelling is its refusal to provide simple moral certainties. Instead, the novel asks readers to consider how history is written, who gets remembered, and what happens when cherished stories collide with inconvenient truths. These questions resonate without ever feeling preachy, arising organically from the characters' journeys and the mysteries they uncover.

She also does a great job with suspense, as each timeline introduces new revelations that deepen the central mystery rather than merely delaying its resolution. The eventual convergence feels both surprising and inevitable, rewarding readers with an ending that is emotionally satisfying while preserving the novel's lingering sense of mystery. You just have to be patient and stay along for the ride.

[Off Service Book Recs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crash, a night, and a letter. Secrets laying buried beneath the dust. A spark that ignites the threads of a century's worth of love, loss, regret, and the ties that bind us.

2024: Nina and Ben crash a small plane over a lake in the Wyoming wilderness. With Ben MIA, Nina prepares to brave the wilderness in search of rescue, armed only with a few energy bars and a dying phone. In her feverish wandering she stumbles upon Sunrise, a last bastion of the Old West that is clearly abandoned - and the final resting place of a mystery 100 years in the making.

2003: Coll, town golden boy and historical enthusiast, is preparing to lead another successful historical reenactment centering on Sunrise, when he finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a scandal at the local bar. And when a young author comes to him with outrageous questions about Sunrise's most beloved historical figure, Coll finds that everything he's known and trusted may be in jeopardy.

1902: A Western is incomplete without its gunslinger, and pulp fiction hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise to claim his title while heading the search for a missing local boy. But why has Vargas returned? Where has be been, and what secrets lurking beneath the town's surface has be come to raise from the dead?

Sometimes, judging a book by its cover has a clear payoff, and this was one of those cases. "Sunrise" s a mystery told in three acts, looping three generations of encounters together through a tense and bittersweet narrative of personal introspection and reflection on the things that both move us forward and hold us back. From the trivial and utterly despairing worries of a college-aged nanny being pulled along tides she cannot control, to a quintessential small-town boy forced to confront the things he cannot control, to the elusive desires of a once and future cowboy seeking meaning during the final chapter, this is the kind of narrative that keeps you up until 3 am begging for the next POV switch, the next cliffhanger, the next stab into the soft parts of yourself that so reflect in the voices of our characters separated by time and space. I need this to be a short TV series immediately, and I still think about this books days after having finished it, like the ghosts in a town whose streets have been left fallow.

[Kym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the book description alone, Sunrise is not a book that would normally warrant a second glance from me. Survival tale? Western? Ummmm . . . not so much. But then I noticed the author’s name - Téa Obreht - and that changed everything for me. As an Obreht fan, I have learned to trust her writing and storytelling ability, and was pleased to receive an advance copy of Sunrise, her newest novel, due to be published on August 11 by Random House.

While the novel is definitely part survival tale and part Western, that’s not the whole of it. In typical Téa Obreht style, the novel is rather . . . beyond genre definition. In addition to the earlier-mentioned survival and Western themes, you'll also find some mystery and a little magic; family drama and coming-of-age self-discovery worked in – all cleverly packaged to come together and make sense in a deliciously surprising finale.

As with the author’s earlier works, Sunrise unfolds in multiple layers; there are stories within stories. And while there are 3 disparate timelines and sets of characters to track, Obreht builds in easy-to-follow guidelines through clear chapter titles (complete with timeline information), and distinct voices and writing styles to keep her readers on track. (She also leaves plenty of “breadcrumbs” for clever readers to follow, which helps tie the layered stories together before the “big finish” makes everything clear.)

Sure, I didn’t think everything about this novel was perfect. There are some pacing issues here and there, and a few superfluous scenes that could probably have been cut, but overall, Téa Ohbreht has done it again – she’s created an intriguing, multi-layered story that just begs you to keep turning the pages.

I love that Obreht trusts her readers to figure things out without having to spoon feed them. It’s always a joy to read a novel from an author who expects her readers to think for themselves and pull the pieces of the story together on their own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This novel will be published on August 11, 2026.

4 stars

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very creative novel is set in Sunrise, a tiny mining town in Wyoming. The reader first sees Sunrise in 2024, when it is a long-abandoned ghost town. We experience Sunrise at that through the eyes of Nina, a young woman and sole survivor of a plane crash. Utterly alone, she wanders into Sunrise with only a few power bars and a will to live. She explores the old buildings and makes a temporary home for herself in an old stable.
The second part of the book takes place in 1902 (and earlier), when Sunrise was a thriving frontier town. This part of the novel reads like an old-time western, or “dime novel”. There are retrospective “shoot-em-ups” where the good guys win, romantic relationships and other frontier events. Several characters are introduced, including Anton Vargas, who has returned in 1902 to resolve issues related to the “shoot-em-up” days.
The third part of the novel is set in 2004, and revolves around a young man, Coll, who lives in a town near Sunrise. He is devoted to the history of the ghost town (Sunrise) and each year directs a reenactment on location at Sunrise. His life is interrupted by a young woman who has studied Sunrise from afar and views its history and inhabitants through a different lens from Coll.
The novel follows the three different time frames and characters for several chapters, until the end when the author does a wonderful job of tying them all together. Thus, the novel is part survival story, part traditional western and part modern day life in a western town. The concept of death, almost as an tangible entity, is pervasive, as is the will to live, most fully shown in Nina’s character. The plight of Native Americans is also an underlying theme.
I have been impressed by Obrect’s writing skill in the past, but in this novel, her creativity reached a new level. She fully demonstrated her excellent ability to capture the American West, the abandoned places located there, and the past and current inhabitants of those places. This was a little outside of my “regular reading” (whatever that means!), but I was much intrigued by it and enjoyed it.

[Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader 2.0 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunrise gripped me from start to finish in a way none of Tea Obreht's earlier books did. The novel disturbed me--who are these people, what ties them together, when do we find all that out? I can give you an answer without spoilers but I won't The pleasure is in feeling the parts click into place in ways you did or did not expect, and shaking your head at the result.

The story unfurls in three time periods; 1903, 2003, and 2024. It begins in the most modern period when the small plane in which Nina is a passenger crashes in the Wyoming mountains. Young and not prepared for survival, she stumbles on the abandoned town of Sunrise which has little to offer besides some modest shelter.

In 1903 Sunrise is doing just fine, with a growing population and the modern conveniences of the day. After many years, Anton Vargas is back in town, the hero who made Sunrise the heart of pulp novels and touring stage shows. He's looking for one of his partners from the old days, a man they called Preacher.

By 2003 Sunrise has been abandoned but the story of Vargas and his partners has become a cottage industry, with an annual re-enactment drawing visitors to the area. This has taken place in the middle-school auditorium, but a local historian Coll has plans this year to move the event to the actual town, which by this time is a beloved place of history and myths but not necessarily the truth.

The American west is full of places like Sunrise, places that flourished and nourished its residents until suddenly there was no more mining or hunting, or gold and they were left empty within weeks. There's a miasma of sadness over them, places that blossomed with homes, and schools, and saloons, and sometimes even an opera house from which everyone disappeared taking their mysteries with them. Obreht captures this beautifully, telling an unforgettable tale.

Many, many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a digital Review copy of Sunrise. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Random House (Katryce Campbell) and NetGalley for the egalley of Sunrise.

I really had no idea what to expect from Sunrise when it was kindly offered to me to read. I was familiar with Téa Obreht as the author of The Tiger's Wife, but I had not read any of her work. The email from Random House said I might like Obreht's new novel since I had read and enjoyed Daniel Mason's North Woods. Sometimes you have to take a chance when it comes to novels.

I'm glad I did. Sunrise starts off with an immediate bang, with an opening that literally throws you into the deep end. And from there it doesn't let up. Obreht is masterful at pacing, keeping you hooked into the story, giving you just enough information to make the puzzle more complete but not revealing the entire image. You keep turning the page just to figure out a little more about the protagonist, about her situation, how it's all connected. You feel like you're making discoveries almost in "real" time along with the protagonist.

It's this immediacy that makes it difficult to write about Sunrise because any comment or interpretation can give away too much of the reading impact. This is a novel that you read, but also sort of experience. Every few pages I felt like my eyebrows skewed up as some new fact was revealed, some layer of obfuscation was wiped away. And this applies to the overall story and to its protagonist, who is caught up in a situation that strips away her own self-deceptions. Obreht creates a memorable character who is transformed before our reading eyes, changing from passivity to action, from self-doubt to self-reliance. Her rising empowerment is one of the highlights of the novel.

I've said too much. But I think Sunrise is an engaging, propulsive, and satisfying novel that will appeal to many readers. It is a novel that once you've finished, you will think back on it because there are deeper currents at work in addition to the exciting surface story.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy hell, that ending.
Sunrise centers on an abandoned Montana town of the same name, and is split across three timelines: present day, 20 years earlier, and the turn of the 20th century. It opens with a plane crash: Nina has fallen into a lake and her pilot boyfriend seems to have gone down with the plane. She is ill-prepared to survive on her own and doesn't know how to get back to civilization. She holes up in Sunrise while she tries to figure it out - and then she finds a body.

20 years earlier, Local history gatekeeper Coll has been roped into helping an outsider with the novel she's writing about Sunrise's most famous figure, Anton Vargas, leader of the Greyrock Four and character of pulp fiction and stage plays. (Coll has also been exposed to a wasting disease via local wolves, but file that away for much later.) They head out to Sunrise and we are introduced to the third timeline through Louise's book.

1902, Anton Vargas has returned to Sunrise on a job, but also in search of his former associate, Preacher. We get the backstory of how the Four came to be and how their celebrity blew up once they were written about. Because what we're really reading is Louise's fictionalized story, this gets a little into ownership of local history and who has a stake in how stories are told and why they are told.

Everything comes back together in the last section, where we find Nina still struggling to get back to the world before she starves or is eaten by a bear or similar. Maybe a more astute mind would be less blindsided by how that all happens, but I had a big WHOA moment and then the final scene just kind of blew my doors off. This is kind of a spooky slow burn that doesn't always feel like it's going anywhere fast, and then ends in a big rush of thriller energy. It left an impression.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Kayla Kopke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that left me torn. The writing is beautiful throughout, and Obreht creates an eerie, atmospheric setting that kept me reading even when I wasn't entirely sure what was happening. The 2024 storyline, following Nina after a plane crash as she searches for her boyfriend and struggles to survive in the abandoned town of Sunrise, was easily the most compelling part of the novel for me.

Unfortunately, the structure made the book far more confusing than it needed to be. The story jumps between multiple timelines—1902, 2003, and 2024—and introduces a large cast of characters whose connections aren't always immediately clear. I spent much of the book trying to figure out where and when I was rather than becoming invested in the story itself. The sections involving Lt. Hawley, Anton Vargas, the Grey Rock Four, Colin Yard, the historical society, and the reenactment often felt disjointed, and the constant shifts in perspective disrupted the narrative momentum.

What makes this frustrating is that there is a genuinely interesting story buried underneath the complexity. The mystery surrounding Sunrise, the discoveries Nina makes in the bunker, and the eventual revelations about her relationship with Ben all landed for me. By the time the novel returned to Nina's storyline near the end, I was fully invested again.

In the end, Sunrise feels like a book that could have been a 4-star read with tighter editing and a clearer presentation of its timelines and characters. The prose is excellent and the atmosphere is memorable, but the disjointed structure kept me at arm's length for much of the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel weaving together three stories from three different time periods exploring myth, history and survival.

Centering around the ghost town of Sunrise, we are treated to three stories featuring the present 2024, the near present 2003 and the past 1902. Nina Terzić has been pushed out of an airplane as it is about to crash, falls into a lake snd manages to make it to a ghost town where she discovers a corpse and a mystery. Then we are taken to the past where we meet Anton Vargas, a gunslinger and swindler who’s searching for a boy. Then in the near present we meet Coll who’s a reenactor attempting to create a play about Vargas but who is side tracked by a few things.

The book is woven together by the things Nina finds in Sunrise - a photocopy of an old novel, An Incident at Greyrock, newspaper clippings and an unfinished novel, Sunrise. This later book presents a vastly different more complex Vargas from the one Coll is preserving to protect. When we return to Nina in the present we get a surprise ending is fantastic! All the pieces of the puzzle the author gave us in the three stories come together.

I enjoyed Vargas’s story. He represent the Old West - which is a theme in the book. Coll was a bit of enigma to me until the end though I sensed in his idea of preserving Vargas’s myth was more out of his myth what an Old West “bad guy” should be. But I was more drawn to Nina as I was hoping she’d be rescued and maybe find Ben, her fiancé, who was on the plane. But there’s a whole other story there cleverly revealed at the end.

I gave this book five stars for its clever structure as a way of telling a story, for how the stories of three seemingly disparate characters could be woven together, and for using the theme of the Old West written so uniquely.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for granting me access to this ARC.

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel defies easy summarization. At its core, it’s a story within a story within a story, beginning with a small-plane crash in a lake in Wyoming and the survival of twenty-something Nina. As the pilot, Nina’s boyfriend Ben, is nowhere to be found, she sets off to find help with a few protein bars and some trail mix. She comes across the long-deserted town of Sunrise and makes a discovery that changes everything and kick-starts the novel. The narrative shifts back, first, to 1902 and, then to 2003, weaving a tale that became famous among those in the area. I was interested in Nina’s situation from the start but became more and more taken as the story moved along. I found the 2003 narrative, in particular, to be brilliantly written and I raced through the pages to see what would happen. The ending brings a surprise, wrapping up the three stories at once in a thrilling conclusion.

Tea Obreht’s previous books, which include The Tiger’s Wife, Inland, and The Morningstar, have each received lowish average stars (between 3.4 and 3.6). I really liked The Morningstar, giving it 5 stars, but disliked The Tiger’s Wife. I anticipate that Sunrise will achieve moderate-to-high ratings (it currently sits at 3.74, but that’s only among 31 readers). Some readers report not easily following the three-story arcs, while others, like me, love the way in which Obreht weaved the unique, entertaining tale. Recommended, especially if you’re an established fan of Obreht’s.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an eARC of this title in exchange for my opinions. Sunrise publishes August 11, 2026.

[Eric Lustbader · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a mystery to me how a novel filled with such majestic, almost poetic prose can be both boring and infuriating. Sunrise by Tea Obreht, an author I much admire, whose previous books I have enjoyed, has created a novel with three timelines, three protagonists, all of which tie together somewhat awkwardly at the end. A young woman is thrown out of a small plane after it hits a bird and starts to crash, lands in a remote lake in the middle of nowhere, on a trip she did not want to go on but her fiance did. Right away we know that's not the true story but we have to wade through hundreds of pages of a "novel" she finds in a ghost town about a famed gunslinger in the early 1900s who, it turns out, wasn't who or what his legend purported him to be. Add to that another story about Coll, a man from the selfsame town of Sunrise, who organizes a yearly celebration of the hometown gunslinger's life and also may be something other than what he pretends to be. Both tales are mind-numbingly boring. Obreht's decision to tell these two tales at a remove makes it impossible to care about anyone in the stories. If that weren't bad enough after the present-day woman's excruciatingly detailed struggle to stay alive, to subsist on a limited number of health bars, where she tantalizingly receives two calls on her cell but as in a dream the people on the other end can't hear her, after seeing rising smoke from what seems a campfire only to discover a tree hit by lightning, the infuriating denoument to the novel made me wonder what I just read and, more crucially, why.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me by surprise. Initially, I struggled because I couldn't decipher how the 2024 section had anything to do with the 1902 and 2003 sections beyond references to the old west town of Sunrise and a few historical characters. I'm glad I stuck with it because watching it all link together in the end was extremely satisfying.

The book started with 24-year-old Nina. She miraculously survived a plane crash and ended up in the wilderness. Her boyfriend, also in the plane, was nowhere to be found. Nina eventually stumbled into the abandoned town of Sunrise and uncovered a few notable secrets from its prior inhabitants.

In 2003, Coll was involved in a heinous bar scandal but was also a huge historical buff. He produced and starred in a reenactment of the famous Sunrise crew and met a woman bursting at the seems with new information about the figures of "his" town that he thought he knew.

And lastly, Anton Vargas was the center of the 1902 portions. He's the quintessential western gunslinger and returned to Sunrise after having once been their most famous resident. The question lingered - what prompted his return after all this time?

Even though it took a little while to get there, I enjoyed uncovering the connections between these three time periods. It was a unique way to tell a story, and I appreciated the parts with Nina in particular. It was hard not to cheer her on, especially as we learned more about her background.

[Ryan Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A two-passenger Censa crashes into a Montana lake moments before the opening of Sunrise and Nina Terzac struggles to shore. The pilot, Nina’s boyfriend Ben, appears lost. She stays near the lake for a night before locating a small abandoned town and accepting that Ben is likely strapped into the pilot's seat of the shredded plane sitting on the bottom of the lake. Nina eventually shelters in an old barn, surviving on protein bars when she makes a grisly discovery. Among them is a backpack containing a novel titled Sunrise, a book based on events that occurred in this now empty town back in 1902.

Sunrise is told over three timelines (2024, 2003, and 1902), and while the individual sections are entertaining throughout, the reader is not offered an intelligent guess at how they might be connected until the second half of the novel. Characters from 1902 survived a scene of intense violence and their actions in the town tie later events together.

The writing is mostly strong and the surprising finale is well done if you have the patience to get there. I would have enjoyed this novel more if I didn’t find myself going back to reread earlier parts so often with the concern I missed something. Maybe sharper readers won’t encounter the same issues. Taken as a whole, Sunrise is a smart, intriguing story, but its construction and format deliver bumps along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a review copy.

[Anne Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need writing that is clear, episodic and sensibly plotted, this may not be the book for you. But if, like me, you have read any previous Tea Obreht novels, get yourself a copy of this unusual book.

It begins, ordinarily enough, with a young woman, Nina, who jumps out of a falling plane at 4,000 feet into a lake and swims ashore, carrying a backpack and leaving on her green sneakers. She arrives on shore, totally alone, in an abandoned town. Nothing too strange, so far. Just when you get to the struggle for her survival, Nina's gone from the page.

You will have to read past three other chapters about three other characters to find out what this novel is about. Think Wild West shows, Gunfight at the OK Corral, wolf diseases transferable to humans, a bit of gay sex, history and survival skills.

Tea Obreht is a master of description and suspense. She is the kind of phenomenal writer that can keep you reading well beyond where you want to stop because you can't figure out what's going on. Keep reading. Your patience will be rewarded. Or will it?

Thanks to Random house for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest opinion and review. Thanks also to Net Galley.

[Lee Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three people, separated by more than a century, are connected to the town of Sunrise. In 1902, Anton Vargas—a gunslinger and the town’s founder—returns to Sunrise. In 2003, Coll Yard is working on an updated version of the annual Sunrise historical reenactment. In 2024, Nina is thrown from a plane that crashes in the Wyoming mountains.

In 1902, Vargas’s pulp-fiction heroics may have been a stretch, but he still leads the search for a missing boy. And the reason for his falling-out with the Preacher is revealed.

In 2003, Coll Yard clashes with a younger writer who notices inconsistencies between the reenactment and an interview with one of Vargas’s colleagues.

In 2024, Sunrise appears completely abandoned, though strange anomalies suggest otherwise. Nina’s immediate goal is simple: survive until she is rescued or can find a way out on foot.

This novel requires patience. Its revelations arrive in fragments, and those pieces may not immediately fit the puzzle readers are assembling. The ending is completely unexpected. I loved it, but some readers will not—not even a little.

[Jeremy Booty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunrise is an unusual and affecting novel. Obreht structures it by setting out a series of interconnecting scenes over the space of 122 years. It takes place in Wyoming in and around the ghost town of Sunrise. Here the past mixes with the present in the lives of the three main characters: Colin Yard, an amateur historian, Anton Vargas, a famous gunslinger and Nina Terzic a nanny who has literally fallen out of the sky.

The narration is not straight forward. The reader is informed through passing references in the dialogue, through recordings and even a book about Vargas and other members of "The Greylock Four" who fought of a band of desperadoes and as a result became famous. The story itself has a dream-like quality about it. Death and resurrection are pervasive themes throughout. It's not an accident that Sunrise is a ghost town. Death personified even makes an appearance.

This is a powerfully told story. The plot moves at a deceptively brisk pace but read carefully. A potential reader should know that this is not a typical mystery or who done it. Nor is it a thriller. It is a meditation on the thin lines that separate us from out past and future, from this world and the next.

[Jeremy Garber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of sexuality, identity, and memory in the guise of an old-school western or two. Sunrise's three main plots revolve around a 21st century recent graduate in history who is trying to uncover the history of his small Western ghost town; a grizzled "mestizo" gunslinger whose reputation outstrips his life experience; and a struggling writer who is writing a novel about the gunslinger. Several of the main characters drift back and forth between the real world and the dream world, like the overlapping narratives of the book in time. The characters inhabit multiple worlds as well as multiple narratives, all teetering on the edge of liminal space. Vargas, the gunslinger, struggles with his own attraction to men, as well as his mixed-race heritage in a racist West, and the untrue legend that keeps him employed. Emily, the novel writer, can't figure out how to novelize Vargas' life since the evidence is so unreliable. The historian's father is a PhD professor teaching at a small rural high school. Vargas' friend Kinsely is a half-Shoshone businessman who works the Vargas legend into becoming mayor of the town and namesake of the county. And Preacher, a failed seminarian, fights for justice for marginalized people with no sense of ethics or success. Obreht is a marvelous writer with a keen ear for dialogue and character. Definitely worth a long, slow, contemplative. read.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publication Date: August 11, 2026

Téa Obreht's Sunrise is an ambitious, genre-blending novel that combines a wilderness survival story, a revisionist Western, and a meditation on history, memory, and the stories we choose to believe. Centered on the abandoned Wyoming ghost town of Sunrise, the novel unfolds across three timelines—from Nina, the lone survivor of a devastating plane crash who stumbles into the deserted town, to legendary gunslinger Anton Vargas in 1902, and Coll, a modern-day historian dedicated to preserving Sunrise's mythology through annual reenactments. Obreht's prose is as striking as ever, transforming the rugged landscape into a character of its own. The layered structure slowly reveals how myth and reality intertwine. The shifting narratives demand patience, and the measured pacing won't work for every reader, but those willing to follow the breadcrumbs will be rewarded with a thoughtful exploration of identity, legacy, and the ways history is rewritten, all culminating in a satisfying conclusion that brings the seemingly disparate threads together.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Jessica Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book for a few reasons. First, the writing takes you there, and that’s big for me. I want to see the scenes, hear the sounds, feel the angst. I did here. Second, from the jump there’s enough mystery drizzled along to tell me more will be revealed, and that made me want to keep turning pages- as did the shifts into three different stories. It kept the life in the words fresh and moving along. (More was revealed, btw- it all comes out in the wash.) Third, there were enough bits in the beginnings of the next two stories to let me know they were heading toward an intersection and I do love a good “coming together” at the end of a tale. This one was good. I walked away feeling full.

In all, I found the book very well written. Detailed and descriptive without being obnoxious. The three stories were interesting in themselves and still fold into one another smoothly at the end to forge a whole novel. It could’ve been choppy and broken and messy but it wasn’t. It was a great story about a wild place and a few of the lives that place lived. Makes me want to go there myself. But in a jeep, with gps and plenty of snacks.

[Clementine · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading *Sunrise*, I'm still undecided on my overall thoughts. Téa Obreht takes an interesting approach to storytelling, weaving together three different stories set in the same location across three different time periods, each with its own main character. It was fascinating to watch the connections slowly emerge as the novel unfolded.

There were moments when I was completely intrigued and eager to see how everything fit together. At other times, though, I found myself pushing through sections just to get to the next piece of the puzzle. I kept anticipating the point where all three storylines would intersect, and I enjoyed seeing those connections come to light.

That said, I was left feeling like the ending arrived a little too abruptly. After investing so much time in the characters and the intricate structure of the novel, I wanted just a bit more resolution.

Overall, this is an ambitious and beautifully written novel that rewards patient readers. While it didn't completely work for me, I appreciated Obreht's unique storytelling style and would certainly read another of her books.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Sunrise” by Te’a Obreht is a mystery told in three act’s that loops three generations of encounters together through a bittersweet personal introspective on things that both move us forward and hold us back.

A two passenger plane crashes into a lake moments before the opening page of the story. A young woman survives and struggles to shore. Her boyfriend the pilot appears to be lost so she stays on the lake alone for a night before finding an abandoned town. As she shelters in the town waiting for rescue she finds a backpack containing a novel titled Sunrise, a book based on events that happened in the town in 1902.

The story timelines (2024, 2003, and 1902) are each interesting, although it takes a long time and many pages to understand their connection. The unique writing style and finish is strong but I found the story confusing at times. Sunrise will be another fascinating reading experience for all fans of Ms. Obreht.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Sharon Sample · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Obreht’s books. Previous novels contain commentary about a specific world issue. As I began reading this book I was looking for the same feature for it within the story of the abandoned town of Sunrise, Montana. The narrative discusses the people who have inhabited Sunrise for the last 100 years.

There are the stories of two men in the early 1900s, a man in the first part of the 2000s and a young woman who gets stranded in what has become the now deserted town of Sunrise.

The sense of place is the glue that holds the narrative together as the reader learns about these people. Obreht includes a brief section on the displacement of Native Americans but, there is not enough of this story line to make it the underlying theme.

Either what I anticipated was not there or it was too oblique for me to determine resulting in disappointment for me. Obreht is a good writer but the story of the inhabitants of Sunrise was not enough for the book to be a satisfying read.
#Sunrise #NetGalley.

[Kim McGee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A western mystery wrapped up in a survival adventure. Beginning at the end of a plane crash where a lone survivor makes her way out of the Tetons and finds an abandoned ghost town called Sunrise. While searching for food or anything to help her through another day Nina makes a grizzly discovery.
The story then goes back to the start of the town where a tragic event happens that casts the town in misery and legend. Fast forward to 2003 for the annual reenactment of the legendary mystery that has never been solved in order to keep a dying town alive and keep a questioning author at bay. The seamless transitions pull us further into the mystery of exactly what happened as well as the fate of our stoic crash survivor. I love a good western and mystery and this covers both beautifully. Readalikes would be UPSTANDING WOMEN WANTED, NEWS OF THE WORLD and THE MADSTONE.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.