The New York Times called Porter Shreve's first novel, The Obituary Writer, an involving and sneakily touching story whose twists feel less like the conventions of a genre than the convolutions of a heart — any heart. Newsday hailed the book as a substantial achievement, and Tim O'Brien described it as taut, compelling, and moving . . . beautifully written, engrossing from start to finish. Shining with the same heart and humor, Shreves second novel, Drives Like a Dream, is a smart, wry tale about a modern-day mother in the midst of a lifestyle crisis — and her outlandish attempts to get her family back.

Lydia Modine is sixty-one and about to come undone. Her three grown-up children have flown the coop. She hasn't seen them together in more than a year, and now her ex-husband is about to remarry a woman half his age. And the insults keep coming: Lydia is stuck on a book she's writing about Detroit's car industry, which uncannily parallels her own life — out with the old model, in with the new. She's poured her soul into her family, only to be abandoned in the City of Dream Machines. But then a twist of fate introduces her to Norm, an eco-car fanatic out to remake her and the world. Is he the answer to all of her problems, or does he hold the one secret that just might get her children back to Detroit, home for good?

A warm, funny, and affecting novel that's sure to appeal to anyone who has longed for an alternate life, Drives Like a Dream confirms that sometimes when you set out for a spin, the twists and turns can be perfectly rewarding — and right.

"After his well-received, quirky 2000 debut, The Obituary Writer, Shreve succumbs to the sophomore slump with a dull and far-fetched follow-up. Cars are in Lydia Modine's blood: her father had worked for Ford, Tucker and GM, she's an expert on his former boss, Preston Tucker, and she still lives right outside a tarnished and crumbling Detroit. Now divorced after 33 years of marriage, Lydia, a 'social historian of the automobile,' sees too many parallels between herself and the subject of her fifth book: ' 'planned obsolescence.' Out with the old, in with the new.' In the wake of her ex-husband Cy's wedding to a younger woman, 61-year-old Lydia is desperate to escape her sense of loss and restore a sense of family with her three grown children. Shreve's considerable historical research is obvious and admirable, but unless the reader is fascinated by the car industry, it will seem like overkill. Leads that could have been interesting remain unpursued, while an unlikely relationship between Lydia and Cy's new in-laws is developed. Also unlikely is Lydia's scheme to lure her children back home, which borders on the slapstick. Shreve shows promise with some strong character writing, but erratic storytelling, a hasty conclusion and a surfeit of auto lore stall the tale. Agent, Timothy Seldes. 9-city author tour. (Mar. 4)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Author of the well-received The Obituary Writer, Shreve here offers a lively story....Peppered with an assortment of memorable characters, this entertaining novel effectively combines a tale of loss and letting go with an examination of a large industry's past." Library Journal

"Second-novelist Shreve (The Obituary Writer, 2000) endows Lydia with a touching naivete in the midst of frightening modern dating rituals, while her children, especially daughter Jessica, are well fleshed and real.... Clever and biting fiction that also serves as an amiable account of the Detroit car industry." Kirkus Reviews

"As her convictions crumble, Lydia behaves increasingly erratically. How her family contends with the seismic shifts in her personality and her eventual stabilization makes this an affecting character-driven novel." Booklist

"Porter Shreve once again demonstrates his talent for creating richly complicated characters and then for giving them the kind of second chances we all wish we could have in our own lives. Drives Like a Dream is impossible to put down. Margot Livesey, author of Banishing Verona and Eva Moves the Furniture

"Porter Shreve has always had a keen feel for a story and an instinct for what is interesting in the world. He is a wonderful and accomplished young writer." Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?

"Heartbreaking, funny, deeply felt, Drives Like a Dream takes us on an old-fashioned motoring tour through the life of a remarkable family....For all of its beautifully crafted surfaces, make no mistake, Porter Shreve writes, as Chekhov said: Out of his characters psychic wounds. He is a fine, fine writer indeed." Howard Norman, author of The Haunting of L. and The Bird Artist

Shining with the heart and humor that Shreve brought to his first novel, "Drives Like a Dream" is a smart, wry tale about a modern mother in the midst of a radical lifestyle crisis, and her outlandish attempts to get her family back.

PORTER SHREVE is the author of the acclaimed novel The Obituary Writer,which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Book Sense 76 pick. Shreve, whom Lorrie Moore has hailed as a "wonderful and accomplished"writer, currently directs the Creative Writing Program at Purdue University and lives in Indiana.