Sleepaway

Reviews / Votes

"A compelling, propulsive apocalyptic novel that plunges into the heartland of human complexity. Written in careful, spare prose, with intelligence and wit, Sleepaway raises important questions about how we deal with sickness and healing and, most importantly, about the human condition. What a book Sleepaway is!" * Brandon Hobson, author of "Where the Dead Sit Talking" * "Sleepaway is a truly frightening horror novel, but written with such gentle melancholy and sweetness that the dread only slowly envelops the reader. Sleepaway is also a great poetic novel about the end of childhood, that uncanny transition we all make--and about what that might feel like in the last days--and it all converged in a way that slew me. I will never forget that ending." * Dan Chaon, author of "Ill Will" * "Prufer paints beautifully the solace of found family after loss, the ways we both fail and step up to take care of each other. In a poet's voice, here aches the bittersweet awareness of how few moments we have alive. Here glows how we choose to love in the moments we have left." * Brenda Peynado, author of "The Rock Eaters" * "Novels this haunting, this unsettling, are rarely delivered with the poetic grace on display in Sleepaway. Sweet lord-I was not ready. In the tradition of Saramago's Blindness, Sleepaway is as insightful as it is entertaining, and ultimately succeeds both as a post-pandemic metaphor and a page-turner. Renowned poet Kevin Prufer has created a novel that will grip the reader from its opening and continue to resonate long after its haunting last line is read." * Mat Johnson, author of "Pym" and "Invisible Things" * "An incurable, inexplicable condition brings humanity to the breaking point in Kevin Prufer's novel . . . . Sleepaway is a haunting story about how people deal with upheaval, loss, and the threat of imminent, unnatural death." * Foreword Reviews * "Renowned poet Prufer's debut novel is an excellent, slow-moving apocalyptic narrative. . . . Constantly intriguing, this a superbly original parable about the recent collective experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic." * Booklist * "This slim, artful novel by Prufer, a poet, imagines a world consumed by a peculiar viral phenomenon. . . . Though Prufer doesn't attempt to deliver a clear message about society in a crisis, the book is suffused with anxiety over our collective inability to respond cohesively to collective ills. A taut and piercing dystopian tale." * Kirkus Reviews * "Novels tend to portray dystopia as a messy, noisy business. Prufer's slim dystopian novel, Sleepaway, pursues a different kind of action. The terror in this book-a small-press gem released this year that deserves more attention-is that the depth of the crisis isn't certain. Instead of abject peril, humanity is thrust into a state of anxiety, like being stuck in the middle of a wobbly bridge. . . . Prufer is a poet, and he approaches the nightmarish scenario in Sleepaway, his debut novel, with patient lyricism, not the manic energy of a thriller." * Los Angeles Times * "In his debut novel, Sleepaway, Kevin Prufer brings beautiful language and poetic tension to the page, along with a tight, dystopic plot and originally drawn characters. . . . [Prufer] has given us a tender, thoughtful, and descriptive story." * Good River Review * Silver Winner, Fiction: Fantasy/SciFi/Horror/Paranormal * Midwest Book Awards * Runner Up * The AWP James Alan McPherson Award for the Novel * Bronze Winner, Literary (Adult Fiction) * Foreword INDES Award * Honoree/Finalist, Best Novel of 2024 * Society of Midland Authors *