Sleeping Children - by Anthony Passeron (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An intimate, captivating first novel that tells the story of a family in southern France whose lives are intertwined with the history of the AIDS crisis--and with the forgotten French doctors who are among the first to detect the virus.

It's 1981. As a wave of mysterious infections sweeps across the United States, a doctor in Paris encounters something unexpected: a case of a disease long thought to have been eradicated. It matches what is happening across the Atlantic--and thus begins a race to make sense of a deadly virus, one that will define a generation.

Miles away, in rural France, Anthony Passeron's family is dealing with a crisis of their own. Their small village is gripped by another epidemic: heroin addiction. Anthony's uncle Désiré, once the pride of the family, has become one of the "sleeping children." Often found unconscious on street corners, he is now a stranger to his family. As Désiré's life descends into chaos, the thunder of the AIDS crisis grows closer. These two stories--one intimate, one global--are about to collide.

Anthony Passeron's moving novel is also an eye-opening story about shame and the slow poisoning that secrets can inflict on a family. Exploring the stories of the heroic few who fought not only for a cure but for justice for an abandoned community, Sleeping Children is a radical vision of a history reshaped, retold, and remembered.

Review Quotes

Advance Praise

"In brief chapters and straightforward prose, Passeron patiently unfolds the harrowing family drama and medical mystery. It's a searing testament to how the dead live on in their loved ones' memory."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Without ever raising his voice, Anthony Passeron has shattered the family silence that scabbed over tragedy and has produced a work so powerful, so moving, that it lingers long after reading. Magnificent."
--Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize winner and author of The Young Man

About the Author

Anthony Passeron was born in Nice, France, in 1983. He teaches French literature and the humanities in a secondary school. Published in sixteen languages, Sleeping Children is his first novel. It was awarded many prizes in France, including the Prix Wepler and the Prix Première Plume.

Frank Wynne has translated the work of numerous French and Hispanic authors, including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Javier Cercas, and Virginie Despentes. His work has earned him many prizes, including the Scott Moncrieff Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award with Houellebecq for The Elementary Particles. His translation of Jean-Baptiste Del Amo's Animalia won the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize.