Patricia Highsmith meets White Lotus in this surprising and suspenseful modern gothic story following a couple running from both secretive pasts and very present dangers while honeymooning on a Greek island.
âFantastically grippingâŠthis is fiction roaring on all cylinders.â âThe Guardian
âA work of peculiar gonzo geniusâŠThomas takes a glamorous late-capitalist setting, with rosĂ© and catamaransâŠand warps it into a story that is surprising, humane and political to its bones.â âThe New York Times
Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on a tiny Greek island for their honeymoon. Itâs the end of the season and a storm is imminent. Determined to make the best of it, they check into the sun-soaked rooms of Villa Rosa. Already feeling insecure after seeing the âbeautiful people,â the seemingly endless number of young models and musicians lounging along the Mediterranean, Evelyn is wary of the hotelâs owner, Isabella, who seems to only have eyes for Richard.
Isabella ostensibly disapproves of every request Evelyn makes, seemingly annoyed at the fact that they are there at all. Isabella is also preoccupied with her chance to enthrall the only other guestsâan American producer named Marcus and his partner Debbieâwith the story of âthe sleepwalkers,â a couple who had stayed at the hotel recently and drowned.
Everyone seems to want to talk about the sleepwalkers, save for Hamza, a young Turkish man Evelyn had seen with some of the âbeautiful people,â as well as the âdapper little manââthe strange yet fashionable owner of the islandâs lone antiques and gift shop she sees everywhere.
But what at first seemed eccentric, decorative, or simply ridiculous, becomes a living nightmare. Evelyn and Richard are separated the night of the storm and forced to face dark truths, but itâs their confessions around the origins of their relationship and the years leading up to their marriage that might save them.
âVibey, dark, and weirdâ (Allie Rowbottom, author of Aesthetica), and also very funny, The Sleepwalkers asks urgent questions about relationships, sexuality, and the darkest elements of contemporary societyâwhere our most terrible secrets are hidden in plain sight.
