The Lathe of Heaven - Free Audiobook

The book is set in Portland, Oregon, in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor, a protein deprivation from malnutrition. Although impoverished, the culture is similar to the 1970s in the United States. There is also a massive war in the Middle East. Climate change reduces quality of life.

The title is from the writings of Chuang Tzu (Zhuang Zhou) specifically a passage from Book XXIII. However it's a mis-translation apparently.