Sleep Donation

Trish Edgewater isn’t comfortable with what she’s doing. Her sister Dori was one of the first to die during the Insomnia Crisis, and now Trish uses Dori’s story to recruit clients to Slumber Corps. In Karen Russell’s recently reprinted novella, Sleep Donation, time is running out for Trish to do the right thing.

At first, working for Slumber Corps feels like the right way to honor Dori’s memory. By convincing people to donate their good sleep to those who cannot sleep at all, she feels she is on the side of right. After all, if Dori had managed just one night of sleep, her condition could have reversed, her body reset, and her life returned to normal. But the sleep donation process hadn’t existed to help Dori, so now Trish does what she can to help others. This includes frequent communication with the Harkonnens whose daughter, Baby A, has the purest and most universally accepted sleep collected to date.

Trish’s employers, twin brothers whose joylessness seems matched only by their faith in her, are thrilled with Baby A’s donations. A little too thrilled for Trish’s taste. When she uncovers what is really happening at Slumber Corps, she’ll have to decide where to direct her loyalty once and for all.

Twisted, strange, and beautiful, like all of her other work, Sleep Donation from Karen Russell is not to be missed.