The Accidental Future of Dean Harris
An Uplifting Story of Second Chances, Success, and the Lives We Think We Want to Live

Dean Harris finally has everything he ever wanted. The only problem? He might still be asleep.

Writer Dean Harris lives in the narrow gap between “visionary” and “fraud.” He’s spent years hammering at the gates of success, waiting for the world to notice him while showering praise on everyone else. Until the impossible happens: his latest novel becomes a global sensation. The critics are calling him a genius. The bookstores can’t keep his work on the shelves.

Then he wakes up.

Stuck again in a reality of unread pages and circular spaces, Dean is haunted by the success that feels right there… just out of reach. But as the seeds and echoes of his dream bleed into his waking hours, Dean realizes that maybe the vision wasn’t simply an “accidental future”—maybe it was more like a map.

To find the future he saw in his sleep, he’ll have to face himself. And maybe stop chasing the ghost of the man he wants to be and tackle the life he’s actually living: the family he’s overlooked and a relationship with his girlfriend, Claire, that’s fraying under the weight of his ambition.

Is his life a predestined path toward failure, or has he been looking for validation in all the wrong places? Perhaps Dean Harris’s real story starts tomorrow. If he can align his accidental future.

Utilizing a nonlinear six-part structure, The Accidental Future of Dean Harris is a journey through memory, subconscious desire, and the seeds we plant in our own past.

“The structure…suits a book obsessed with revision, not only of manuscripts but of the stories people tell about their own lives.” - Kyle Eaton, Manhattan Book Review [rated 4.5/5]

Perfect for fans of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, David Mitchell’s structuring in Cloud Atlas, and Mitch Albom’s soulful explorations of life and purpose.

Find out more about the book's inspiration and creation at papillon-du-pere.com/dean-harris-page-1.

“Its ability to draw with dreams, visions of the future, and revised connections makes for a winning story that is hard to put down.”
- D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“The novel gets real mileage out of [Dean’s] relationships, especially with Claire, his partner…and with the older literary champion Charles Corning, who keeps pushing Dean to stop being afraid of the truth in his own work.”
- Kyle Eaton, Manhattan Book Review [rated 4.5/5]