Gary Furlong narrates a touching father-and-son story that will leave listeners sorry when it’s over. When Antonio is 18, he and his father travel from Italy to Marseille, where Antonio’s doctor will tell them whether his early-onset epilepsy has cured itself. Father and son haven’t been close, but this trip creates a lifelong connection. When the doctor prescribes 48 hours off his medicine with no sleep as the ultimate test, Antonio and his father stay awake together. Furlong convincingly creates Antonio’s first experiences with his condition as a child and the many revealing moments shared with his father on their current journey. He deftly delivers the pair’s growing tenderness, mutual respect, and awakening to each other’s humanity. A loving, thoughtful coming-of-age story . . . beautifully performed. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Three O'Clock in the Morning: A Novel
Narrated by Gary Furlong
Gianrico CarofiglioUnabridged — 3 hours, 55 minutes
Three O'Clock in the Morning: A Novel
Narrated by Gary Furlong
Gianrico CarofiglioUnabridged — 3 hours, 55 minutes
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Overview
""In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning."" - F. Scott Fitzgerald
A coming-of-age novel-a heady union of Before Sunrise and Beautiful Ruins-about a father and his teenage son who are forced to spend two sleepless nights exploring the city of Marseilles, a journey of unexpected adventure and profound discovery that helps them come to truly know each other.
Antonio is eighteen years old and on the cusp of adulthood. His father, a brilliant mathematician, hasn't played a large part in his life since divorcing Antonio's mother but when Antonio is diagnosed with epilepsy, they travel to Marseille to visit a doctor who may hold the hope for an effective treatment. It is there, in a foreign city, under strained circumstances, that they will get to know each other and connect for the first time.
A beautiful, gritty, and charming port city where French old-world charm meets modern bohemia, father and son stroll the streets sharing strained small talk. But as the hours pass and day gives way to night, the two find themselves caught in a series of caffeine-imbued adventures involving unexpected people (and unforeseen trysts) that connect father and son for the first time. As the two discuss poetry, family, sex, math, death, and dreams, their experience becomes a mesmerizing 48-hour microcosm of a lifetime relationship. Both learn 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-a series of cliffs and bays on the city's outskirts-Three O'Clock in the Morning is a bewitching coming-of-age story imbued with nostalgia and a revelatory exploration of time and fate, youth and adulthood.
Translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis
Editorial Reviews
★ 12/07/2020
Former Italian senator and prosecutor Carofiglio (A Fine Line) takes a break from his Guido Guerrieri crime series with this poignant and moving father/son story. Antonio, an Italian 18-year-old whose parents are separated, is largely estranged from his father; he suffers bouts of epilepsy and, having endured years of failed treatments, is told by a specialist in Marseilles that he may be able to be cured. First, though, the doctor must test how Antonio’s brain reacts to stress. To that end, Antonio is ordered to not sleep for two days, and he spends the 48 hours awake in the city, accompanied by his father. He asks his dad about a scar, which leads to a how-I-met-your-mother story, and a dazzling episode, set in a jazz club, has Antonio marveling at his father playing piano on stage. Then the pair talk about mathematics and magical thinking, and after they visit a porno shop his father recounts visiting a brothel. They eventually get invited to a party where Antonio has a transformative experience. The father and son’s odyssey through the gritty streets of Marseilles is laced with many memorable details, such as the single-file pack of dogs that reminds Antonio of the Abbey Road cover, and Carofiglio shines with vivid descriptions of Antonio’s epilepsy fits (“I had a bedspread that was light blue, almost sky blue. All at once that pale, relaxing colour grew threatening...and went right through me with a violence that was unreal”). Antonio’s catalog of intimate experiences, whether painful, pleasurable, or bittersweet, make for an enchanting coming-of-age tale. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Mar.)
"Reading this wondrous book is like wandering the streets of a bewitching foreign city, highly attuned to its pleasures and tensions, thrilled by its freedom and possibility. I was deeply moved by its tenderness, its honesty, and, most of all, by the unlikely journey father and son take to discover each other as if for the first time. Carofiglio is a master of voice and atmosphere, which gives this elegiac novel its satisfying and emotional punch." — Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“[A] poignant and moving father/son story…. Antonio’s catalog of intimate experiences, whether painful, pleasurable, or bittersweet, make for an enchanting coming-of-age tale.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Their primary task is simple: Don’t fall asleep. Instead they walk and they talk—about love, about mathematics (Dad’s specialty), about food, about philosophy, about life.... subtle precision informs every page, as does a deceptive simplicity laden with all that happens when you’re not paying attention....The title comes from a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald: 'In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.' Here those dark nights arrive with shimmering, unforced beauty, filling the pages with jagged moonlight like the finest neorealist film. A journey by foot: crisp, lean, yet quietly mournful." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Antonio tells the story in his own unadorned first-person voice from his perspective as a 51-year-old adult, a fact that adds wisdom to this absorbing novel of filial bonding.” — Booklist
"A compelling, compact story...Gianrico Carofiglio’s Three O’Clock in the Morning is profound in its simple delivery." — New York Journal of Books
"This offbeat, nostalgic work reminds us of the things that are most important in life." — BookBrowser
“This is a wonderful book.” — Antonio D’Orrico, La Lettura
“A coming-of-age journey that is as rational as it is touching, and that builds up some crucial symbolisms in the reflections of a beautiful dryness.” — Leonetta Bentivoglio, la Repubblica
“It’s not a crime story but the suspense is still there, in Gianrico Carofiglio’s coming-of-age novel.” — Alberto Riva, il Venerdì di Repubblica
“One of those novels for which you feel sorry in the last pages, when reading slows down to ward off the final word.” — Il fatto quotidiano
"Three O’Clock in the Morning is a tender, heady and heartwarming tale where the strained conversation of a father and son transforms into a lifetime bond." — Seattle Times
Antonio tells the story in his own unadorned first-person voice from his perspective as a 51-year-old adult, a fact that adds wisdom to this absorbing novel of filial bonding.
"This offbeat, nostalgic work reminds us of the things that are most important in life."
One of those novels for which you feel sorry in the last pages, when reading slows down to ward off the final word.”
"Reading this wondrous book is like wandering the streets of a bewitching foreign city, highly attuned to its pleasures and tensions, thrilled by its freedom and possibility. I was deeply moved by its tenderness, its honesty, and, most of all, by the unlikely journey father and son take to discover each other as if for the first time. Carofiglio is a master of voice and atmosphere, which gives this elegiac novel its satisfying and emotional punch."
It’s not a crime story but the suspense is still there, in Gianrico Carofiglio’s coming-of-age novel.”
This is a wonderful book.”
A coming-of-age journey that is as rational as it is touching, and that builds up some crucial symbolisms in the reflections of a beautiful dryness.”
"A compelling, compact story...Gianrico Carofiglio’s Three O’Clock in the Morning is profound in its simple delivery."
Antonio tells the story in his own unadorned first-person voice from his perspective as a 51-year-old adult, a fact that adds wisdom to this absorbing novel of filial bonding.
"Three O’Clock in the Morning is a tender, heady and heartwarming tale where the strained conversation of a father and son transforms into a lifetime bond."
One of those novels for which you feel sorry in the last pages, when reading slows down to ward off the final word.”
Gary Furlong narrates a touching father-and-son story that will leave listeners sorry when it’s over. When Antonio is 18, he and his father travel from Italy to Marseille, where Antonio’s doctor will tell them whether his early-onset epilepsy has cured itself. Father and son haven’t been close, but this trip creates a lifelong connection. When the doctor prescribes 48 hours off his medicine with no sleep as the ultimate test, Antonio and his father stay awake together. Furlong convincingly creates Antonio’s first experiences with his condition as a child and the many revealing moments shared with his father on their current journey. He deftly delivers the pair’s growing tenderness, mutual respect, and awakening to each other’s humanity. A loving, thoughtful coming-of-age story . . . beautifully performed. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
★ 2020-12-26
A father and son explore Marseilles without sleep.
This is a novel of a specific time and place that makes you sorry and even a little melancholy to leave that time and place behind. The time is 1983. The place is the grimy but lovely French port city of Marseille. Here we find a father and his 18-year-old son, Antonio, passing, by doctor’s orders, two sleepless nights as they wait to see if Antonio’s epilepsy has subsided. Like many fathers and sons, they have left much unsaid over the years: regrets, recriminations, affections, secrets. In language plain and graceful, presented in a svelte translation from the Italian by Curtis, Carofiglio quietly lays their souls bare in allowing them to see each other as human beings for the first time. They walk through sketchy neighborhoods, they indulge in wine and coffee, they see some jazz, they swim in the sea, and they visit a bohemian party. Their primary task is simple: Don’t fall asleep. Instead they walk and they talk—about love, about mathematics (Dad’s speciality), about food, about philosophy, about life. Slowly, without fanfare, they reveal themselves. Here’s Antonio, near the end of their odyssey: “Two nights without sleep weaken you, slow down your reflexes, blur your vision, but they give you a very subtle, precise sense of what really matters.” That subtle precision informs every page, as does a deceptive simplicity laden with all that happens when you’re not paying attention. The novel takes place in a sort of eternal present, a time when all senses are awake. The title comes from a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.” Here those dark nights arrive with shimmering, unforced beauty, filling the pages with jagged moonlight like the finest neorealist film.
A journey by foot: crisp, lean, yet quietly mournful.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940177361161 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 03/16/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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