Forty years after the death of his uncle Désiré, Anthony Passeron sets out to investigate his family’s history, insofar as it sheds light on the circumstances surrounding his uncle’s passing. Tracing the social ascent of his grandparents—who became butchers during the Trente Glorieuses—and the growing generational rift between them and their children, he weaves together two parallel narratives: the emergence of AIDS within his own family in the hills above Nice, and the medical community’s fight against the disease in French and American hospitals.

In this moving exploration of familial bonds—blending sociological inquiry with personal testimony—Passeron captures the isolation endured by families at a time when the virus was unknown, denial pervasive, and the afflicted harshly ostracized. An outcast.

Sleeping Children, by Anthony Passeron, translated from the French by Frank Wynne, FSG
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