An original and absorbing story about a deadly insomnia epidemic in the United States.

An insomnia epidemic is sweeping the United States. Thousands of people die after weeks of not being able to sleep; they fall asleep, sunk in the most absolute despair and consumed by madness. Trish Edgewater works as a recruiter for the Sleep Brigades, a non-profit organization that seeks sleep donors: people willing to give up some of their hours of rest and save the lives of a few insomniacs with their transfusions. Trish is an exemplary recruiter, whose talent is only explained through her biography: her sister Dori was one of the first fatal victims of the sleep crisis, and the emotional account of her agony and death makes Trish's recruitment speech practically foolproof.

But when Baby A, the world's first universal sleep donor, and Donor Y, whose tainted transfusions unleash a wave of inhuman nightmares, enter the scene, Trish begins to question the ethical limits of a seemingly altruistic profession.

Clear-sighted and disturbing, Sleep Donors explores values ​​such as empathy, commitment and selflessness, and how they can be corrupted in times of crisis. With dazzling imagination and a precise, direct style, Karen Russell transports us into a world eerily similar to our own, a nightmare that is still a warning.