REVIEW:

“In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Italian author Gianrico Carofiglio’s novel inspired by that quote sure did sneak up on me. Isn’t it wonderful when you start a book with no expectations and realize you’ve unearthed a gem?!

Set in the 1980s, Three O’Clock in the Morning follows 18-year-old Antonio and his middle-aged father as they spend 48 hours together in Marseilles. Because Antonio is there for a series of tests related to his epilepsy, he must stay up the entire time. His father joins him in these sleepless hours, and their time together is simultaneously mundane and illuminating.

Pick this one up if any of the following appeals:

• A book translated from Italian, set in France in the ‘80s.

• Father/son relationships, particularly while the son is on the verge of adulthood.

• A novel under 200 pages to help you reach a reading goal.

• Struggles with a child’s medical diagnosis.

On that last point, there is a scene in which a young Antonio and his parents are visiting a doctor to better understand his condition. In one sentence, the doctor helps him see that he is not alone, and that there is still hope for a productive - and perhaps even remarkable - life. It brought chills to my entire body, and even remembering it now does the same.

I received a complimentary copy of the audiobook from Libro.fm and HarperVia for International Translation Day. What a gift!

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

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.