Sleeping children : a novel
(Book)

"Originally published in French in 2022 by éditions Globe, France, as Les enfants endormis"--Title page verso.

"An intimate, captivating, and prizewinning first novel that tells the story of a family in southern France whose lives are intertwined with the history of the AIDS crisis"-- Provided by publisher.

"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." -- Book jacket