Pascal Frimousse

43 years old. Work as a literary teacher and as professional troll. Bad tendency to stick his nose everywhere, bad tendency to get his face smashed. What he loves: to take his time for reading or cooking. Frimousse is a good lad with a jerk job.

 

• Awake time: 12hrs.
• Motto: “Piano, pianissimo”

 

 

Michel

Frimousse’s best friend. Former intendant at the Lycée Français of Prague, Michel writes thesis after thesis (mostly philosophical) for pleasure. Scoffing but never pretentious, his honesty can be somewhat harsh. He opens a café, Le Dormeur du val at the end of 2055. He offers a philosophical question for every alcoholic drink ordered (it’s the “Greek touch” of the house).

 

• Awake time: 18hrs (lucky guy)
• Motto: “Know yourself, but be prepared to be disappointed”

 

 

Aurelia

Frimousse’s wife. Former bio-molecular scientist. Her thing before the great sleep: spit on the dogs of the neighbourhood. Now works online for a company selling stimulants. Shrewd, coquette, pain in the arse. Share only a half hour with Frimousse. So even living together, they don’t see each other much.

 

• Awake time: 4hrs (as the silent majority of “Marmots”)
• Motto: “Mirror, mirror on the wall…”

 

 

Dr Emile Beretta

67 years old, small puny awesome Belgian. Is the most brilliant geneticist of his time. Has worked for 20 years on Morpheus with no success. However, some says he found a cure. Every mafias and embassies are after him since two months.

 

• Awake time: 7hrs
• Motto: “It’s complicated… if I explained it, I would have to explain it again”

 

 

Lieutenant-colonel Prieur, aka Esmeralda

Esméralda works for the French Embassy. As a plotting woman, she has sailed for long years in the muddy waters of spying. Behind a lot of assassinations. She first gets in touch with Frimousse, under the false identity of Dr Beretta’s tearful wife.

 

• Awake time: 9hrs at the beginning, 4 at the end.
• Motto: none, she doesn’t give a damn about mottoes.

 

 

Jarda Kralov

Former petty con artist, Kralov became a dangerous swindler. He’s immensely wealthy. He contacts Frimousse to find Dr Beretta too. Cruel and spiteful, he absolutely hates the duchess Hrušková (17 years earlier, she sent him while sleeping to Belarus. Kralov had woken in Minsk’s bad district, wearing a traditional Vietnamese costume).

 

• Awake time: 5hrs
• Motto: “You can buy everything. No? How much to change your mind?”

 

 

Duchess Hrušková

77 years old. The Duchess is the head of the Time Mafia, aka the Grannies Gang. She assigns the contracts for the trolls. She absolutely hates Jarda Kralov.

 

• Awake time: 10hrs
• Motto: “Your time, my pay check”

How is life when the world sleeps 20 hours a day?

 

A bit of History

 

The world in bed

(Timeline: 2050-2080). Everything begins when a kind of virus seems to make everyone sleep at random time. Its name: Morpheus. You don’t peacefully fall into Morpheus’ arms, it’s Morpheus that knocks you out cold. Sleep takes you for an undetermined amount of time.

 

 Make it quick, make it short

A few years later, Morpheus has stabilised. Once awake, everybody (mostly) has got four hours to live. In love matters, school, work, life looks like a sprint.

 

Deal with chaos

The whole world has dived into chaos in only a few years after Morpheus has begun. Except for Prague. Since 2052, the city closed its boundaries and settled a fascinating system to rule over the citizens’ time: The Time Tax. Then, it declared technical services the priority. The logic was: “Our salvation will come from machines which will work for us while we sleep. Thus we need as much engineers as possible. School must provide us with them”.

 

 

The story

It’s the story of the narrator and antihero, Pascal Frimousse. His specialty, being part of a small minority that sleeps less than 12 hours a day.

 

The fifth wheel on the wagon

In a city where nobody has time to read any more, Frimousse is a literary teacher at the Lycée Français of Prague. Quite a joke, to be true. But he is actually the alibi for wealthy families to culture. His class is 20 minutes long, mostly online. Nobody cares his studies of masterpiece summaries. Is a bit frustrated to see the books he loves go to waste this way, all the while being paid peanuts. His true usefulness is how he teaches to use key words to express ideas.

 

Toping up the income a bit

Frimousse has got a second job. He tops up his salary executing contracts for a new kind of mafia. Frimousse is a Time hitman, a professional time troll. If you want to hurt somebody, you have to target what costs him most: his time.

Frimousse has become master in the art of making people loose time they don’t have all the while leading small investigations.

 

 

When the story makes it history (from chapter 10)

 

Follow this man! (chapter 10)

Frimousse is hired to find Emile Beretta, a geneticist who is suspected to have found a cure for Morpheus.

 

The daily life of Pascal Frimousse (chapters 11 to 32)

Slowly, Frimousse investigates between his work at the Lycée Français and his troll contracts (false leads, a bit of time in jail, exams, a legendary beating…) to finally find the guy.

 

A coup for nothing (chapters 33 to 37)

Dr Beretta reveals that his research on Morpheus lead to nowhere near a cure but accidentally make him find a very special alcohol, the hydromel. Frimousse helps Beretta to sell the formula for a comfortable cut. His contract is finished: it was a resounding failure from which he went out very rich. For a month, Prague is under the effects of the hydromel. An endless party with no hangover.

 

With time, everything goes (chapter 38)

Years fly by and Morpheus settles on the world… and Frimousse, who finally has come to the point of the 4 hours of wakefulness a day.

 

At the crossroads (final chapter)

There are two ways to understand the end:

One is optimistic: the world begins to slowly wake up. The explanation linked to the four signals discreetly peppered in the novel.

The other, pessimistic: Frimousse is dreaming, Morpheus has won over the world. These so called signals Alpha and Delta are our cry for help. Like any love story, the world ends up in bed.

Awake statuses:

- Awake: 5hrs of wakefulness a day and more

- Marmots: 4hrs a day (vast majority of people)

- Zombie: less than 2hrs a day.

 

Dormeur du Val:

Café opened by Michel after resigning from the Lycée Français. No French touch there but a “Greek touch”: loving dearly the Greek philosophers, Michel offers a philosophical question for each alcoholic drink ordered. Michel succeeded to his work behind the bar was considered of collective interest, deductible of his Time Tax.

 

Hydromel:

Name of the alcohol discovered by mistake by Dr Emile Beretta. The formula is finally sold to Jarda Kralov by Frimousse and Michel. The sale will allow the city to party for thirty days of grotesque dimension and really hot nights.

 

Laws 29-4:

Series of laws decreed by Prague town hall on the 29th, April 2053 proclaiming:

• The prohibition to leave the city.
• Mandatory census and declaration of the awake time.
• Establishment of small communities.
• Establishment of the Time Tax.

 

Lycée Français of Prague:

Opens on every Monday to welcome wealthy families Awake children. Priority is given to technic topics. Literature and history become of low coefficient. New stars are the technology teachers. From Tuesday to Friday, classes are given online.

 

Morpheus:

Name given to the kind of virus that strikes the world in 2050:

• Each person is affected differently, but everyone is affected.
• Has a progression by level (1 hour one month, then half an hour on the next two months). That said, some people went from 8 hours of sleep to 20 in one step (rare cases but identified).
• The virus gets some people to fall asleep in the morning, others around midday, others during the afternoon… I you’re lucky you sleep at night.
• For the most part, Morpheus stabilises around 20 hours of sleep.
• A few couples get their awake time aligned. Frimousse and Aurelia share half an hour together. They a re kind of lucky.
• A same dream can be lived for three nights (in three times) in a chronological order.
• Some morphists gurus say that you can share dreams. Medidation and pre-sleep breathing exercises are required. Nothing has been proofed yet.

 

Morphism:

Slowly replaces Christianity. Its bible: our dreams, read as many images of the world behind.

 

Time Tax:

Tax indexed on the wakeful time. It takes a third for a work a collective interest.

 

Ringers:

Alarm watches worn on the wrist. Set by everyone to ring a bit before the time when Morpheus strikes. When the alarm goes on, it is advised to quickly find a horizontal and stable surface. If not, gravity will take care of you and make you land on the floor. Beware of bumps and back aches.

 

Wekeep: (or « wekeepedia)

Praguer intranet network. Closed system, exclusive to Prague (since the disappearance of the Internet in the 2050’s). Name based on a pun: English “We keep” + Greek “paideía” meaning instruction. Wekeep is what allows this society made of Marmots to function. Almost everything happens online.

- Wekeep-techno: it’s the essence of Wekeep. There is everything relative to maintain technological objects and create new ones. Diagrams are adaptable. Critical to the city’s survival.

- Wekeep-People: diverse gossips on private life.

- Wekeep-culture: History and literature. Blend of truths nobody will believe in ten years and fables taught in five. Telling catchall of the era, one of a failing collective memory. Pages of Wekeep-Culture are given in the novel.

- Other Wekeeps are described in the book: Wekeep-gastro (Where to eat in Prague? What to eat? What kind of sauce to cook with pitbull?), Wekeep-Sciences (fundamental researches too demanding in time, now unuseful but kept nonetheless), Wekeep-Music, Wekepp-Chess…