Three o'Clock in the Morning

Gianrico Carofiglio

"Antonio is a boy on the cusp of adulthood. His father, once a brilliant mathematician, hasn't figured much in his life since the divorce from his mother. But then Antonio is diagnosed with epilepsy and a hope for a cure takes father and son to a doctor in Marseille, where French old world charm meets a modern city of bohemians. There they are advised to spend two days and two nights together without sleep in order to trigger - and resolve the medication for - his condition. In this beautiful, gritty, and charming foreign city, Antonio and his father walk the streets and strain for conversation - until the late nights and caffeine-imbued adventures lead them to a series of unexpected people (and trysts) that connect them together for the first time. As the two cover poetry, family, sex, math, death, and dreams, their story becomes a mesmerizing 48-hour microcosm of a lifetime relationship as they discover much about illusions and regret, about talent and redemption, and, most of all, about love. Elegant, warm, and tender, set against the vivid backdrop of 1980s Marseille and its beautiful calanques, Three O'Clock in the Morning casts a spell on its readers - an unforgettable story imbued with nostalgia and a revelatory exploration of time and fate"--