Frances Lennox ladles out dinner every night to the motley, exuberant, youthful crew assembled around her hospitable table—her two sons and their friends, girlfriends, ex-friends, and fresh-off-the-street friends. It`s the early 1960s and certainly "everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." Except financial circumstances demand that Frances and her sons live with her proper ex-mother-in-law. And her ex-husband, Comrade Johnny, has just dumped his second wife`s problem child at her feet. And the world`s political landscape has suddenly become surreal beyond imagination....

Set against the backdrop of the decade that changed the world forever, The Sweetest Dream is a riveting look from one of the greatest writers of our time at a group of people who dared to dream—and faced the inevitable cleanup afterward.

Doris Lessing is the author of more than 30 books, including novels, stories, reportage, poems, and plays. She lives in London.