Piper Die Schlafenden

A powerful text. Magnificent.

Annie Ernaux
In the family, everyone always acted the same way when it came to Désiré. The father and grandfather fell silent. The mother always interrupted her brief comments with the same saying: "It's all very sad." Thus, each person claimed the truth in their own way – yet the whole truth was that Uncle Désiré ran away from his southern French village to Amsterdam in 1983, succumbed to heroin, and plunged the conservative butcher family into despair. "The Sleepers" tells of a chaotic era in the French countryside, of the heroin epidemic and a rampant new disease called AIDS, of the shame and sorrow of a family that was once among the most respected in their village. "Missing words are what this first novel is made of. Passeron tries to pick up the lost thread of a family that, frightened and ashamed, failed to confront their grief. With great sensitivity, Passeron weaves together the story of an illness with the personal tragedy into which chance plunged a family.".