Sleeping Children

Many years after the death of his Uncle Anthony Passeron, he decides to tell the story of his family—how his grandparents earned a living through hard labor at a butcher’s shop to secure their children’s future; how his father followed in their footsteps; and how his uncle Désiré—the family’s hope—lost his way and ended up in a trap that destroyed an entire generation of young people.

The author weaves together two inseparably connected stories: the tragedy that shook several generations of his family to the core, and the story of doctors who fought desperately against denial and ignorance in their attempts to unravel the mystery of a mysterious illness that turned thousands of people into outcasts.