Frona is convinced she’s the most sinful person in her Greek mountain village. When her parents arrange her marriage with a distant stranger, she is determined to suppress her impulses and become a dutiful wife and mother. But things don’t go as planned: A furious fetus, a friend’s secret wish, a man finding new life in an empty well, a lecherous priest, an unorthodox wandering daughter, invading soldiers, and a wayward ghost attempting reparations all erode the stories Frona has been telling herself about what it means to be a good person. A darkly comedic fairy tale with a magical feminist bent, Until They Sleep confronts the horrors of a world that tries to narrowly define womanhood and sexuality.

“A family drama with touches of magic unfolds in a Greek village in Staikos’s lush debut… An ultimately comforting fairy tale that doesn’t ignore life’s seamier sides.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Intricate but spare, sweeping but precise, and filled with startlingly weird characters made painfully loveable by their indelible humanity, Until They Sleep is as warm, strange, sad, sweet and unforgettable as the village and the people at its heart.”—Thea Lim, author of An Ocean of Minutes

“Sensuous prose meets sharp storytelling in this compelling debut novel that explores what it means to be a woman in a body that desires, that creates, that communicates in a secret language, and that rebels fiercely against being silenced. Staikos’s characters are sisters and daughters, wives and mothers, friends and survivors—all making choices and taking chances that burn so brightly on the page that it’s impossible to look away. A story to get lost in from an astonishing new voice in Canadian fiction.”—Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis

“A ravishing read alive with magic and wisdom, Until They Sleep follows Frona as she tries to navigate a path to happiness and goodness amidst a strict religious upbringing in a traditional Greek village. As surprising and satisfying as a fairytale, Staikos's novel of family, friendship, and community explores what living well truly means.”—Saleema Nawaz, author of Songs for the End of the World

“Nadia Staikos's beautifully accomplished first novel is a work of soaring imagination, a tale of old-world folklore that somehow manages to feel brand new. With a gift for blending the everyday and the miraculous, Staikos creates a dusty, herb-scented countryside inhabited by wise infants and rueful ghosts. Frona is a perfect heroine, a hedonist whose dreams of Heaven are subverted by her delightfully resourceful subconscious. Until They Sleep tells a powerfully humane story about compassion and connection triumphing over cruelty. You will lose yourself in this book and not want to leave.”—Fiona King Foster, author of The Captive

“Nadia Staikos’s beautifully written and emotionally charged novel Until They Sleep takes readers into a Greek village at a time when women were forced to marry strangers, to tolerate abuse, and to repress any sexual desire. The richly detailed descriptions and well-crafted narration bring alive the events of the story and take us deeply inside the thoughts and feelings of the main characters as they struggle through difficult circumstances. The novel builds towards an ending that leads readers to a deeper realization of the complexity of women’s, and men’s, lives in both the past and the present.”—Marianne Micros, author of Eye