The Sleepers - by Matthew Gasda (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A drama that delves into the lives of three incredibly authentic characters as they navigate the tumultuous currents of modern relationships and how they balance their ideals against their ambitions"--

Book Synopsis

A Contemporary Tragedy in a Classic Style

Four New Yorkers' paths collide in the days ahead of the 2016 election. Dan teaches Marxism while secretly courting a student. His girlfriend Mariko, an actress, finds refuge in her dying mentor's bed. When her sister, Akari, arrives from LA--in flight from her own dead-end romance--she becomes the unwitting witness to their mutual destruction . . .

In crystalline prose, Gasda maps the territory between who we pretend to be and who we are--and how far we are willing to go when we think the internet isn't looking. The Sleepers, a ruthless portrait of educated Millennials who know better but act worse, throws a jagged, electric light on how desire upends our carefully curated social personas.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Sleepers

"The Sleepers consolidates Matt Gasda's status as an inventive, insightful observer of his anxious generation--and a commanding literary figure for our moment."--Sohrab Ahmari, US editor, UnHerd

"A fearless, poetic, grotesque, and sensuous response to the challenge of our era in the manner of Chekhov and Lawrence. The novel's hero is the novel itself: an act of generous self-abnegation before every last inch of the characters' otherness."--John Pistelli, author of Major Arcana

"Put simply, Gasda's capacity to open a window to the pathetic neuroses that plague New York's younger elites is nothing short of prophetic."--Stephen Adubato, RealClearBooks

"Matthew Gasda's The Sleepers is an unflinching exploration of human relationships and what it means, in this internet-addled age, to be alive. He pulls no punches. His characters are so unsettling because they are so true." --Ross Barkan, author of Glass Century

"The Sleepers is a tragic, dissonant, Jamesian cantata of love, loneliness, and yearning in the final New Age of a dying world. It is a towering achievement."--Bruce Wagner

"In this book, there is only the sheer mess of humanity, working through the movements of history, suffering and bringing suffering onto others. . . Gasda has written an exceptional and moving novel that brings the contemporary moment to life with a depth and grace that is, at times, downright astonishing. . . It is, for my money, one of the great novels of this period."--Adam Hunter, The Death Drive

"Elegant and vulgar, confounding and provocative."--Robbie Herbst

Praise for Matthew Gasda

"Gasda has a deft, humorous touch and a rare talent for steering large numbers of characters."―Vulture

"The plays never feel self-indulgent or claustrophobic. Instead, they are intelligent, light-footed, and witty. . . . Essential to Gasda's work is its willingness to skate in the direction of thin ice."―First Things

"Gasda has an ear for repartee as sharp as Henri Cartier-Bresson's eye for immortalizing the 'decisive moment' in a photograph."―The Millions

"Matt Gasda is such an incisive playwright, I hesitate to chuck more adjectives in his direction--what if they're the wrong ones? His work is funny and lovely and human in the best way. Perhaps we are, as Nate from Dimes Square says, 'living through the dumbest time in human history, ' but here are four retorts."--Sloane Crosley, author of Cult Classic and I Was Told There'd Be Cake

"Life and art tangle stickily together in these plays. Gasda holds a powder-smudged mirror up to our self-obsessed age."--Matthieu Aikins, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Naked Don't Fear the Water

"Attending one of Matt Gasda's plays in the homemade theaters he finds across town, I feel like I'm part of his dark, funny visions of bohemia; and I feel very inspired to write more and be more ambitious, and I'm reminded of how stories can change your experience of life, how you can live your life as though it were a play, and create your own character, and write your own fortune."--Dean Kissick

"As a comedy of manners, [Dimes Square] is as good as it gets. . . . It's a generational snapshot--someone had to do it, and at least it's someone who knows how to write."―Spike

"Decadent and delicious."―The Last Estate

"What preserves [Dimes Square] from triviality (and, more damningly, from being boring) and elevates it to excellence is that, though this may be how things are, this is not how they should be."―Dappled Things

About the Author

Matthew Gasda is a writer, director, and critic. He is the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research, where his plays appear regularly. You can read his "Writer's Diary" on Substack.