The Fatal Sleep focuses on the scourge of sleeping sickness in Africa. The disease, also known as Human African trypanosomiasis, is transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly which holds captive a third of the entire African continent. Peter Kennedy's story aims to raise awareness of a disease that has so far been largely neglected by the industrialised Western nations, yet is a major killer in Africa. Peter Kennedy has spent much of his like devoted to the study of sleeping sickness in Africa and gives a intense portrait of the African Portrait. Part of the income raised by sales of this book will go towards research on treating diseases like sleeping sickness.