''The Unsleeping Eye'' is a 1973

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by British writer

D. G. Compton David Guy Compton (born August 19, 1930) is a British author who writes science fiction under the name D. G. Compton. He used the name Guy Compton for his earlier crime novels and the pseudonym Frances Lynch for his Gothic novels. He has also writ ...

. It was published in the United Kingdom as ''The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe'' in 1974 and was filmed by

Bertrand Tavernier Bertrand Tavernier (25 April 1941 – 25 March 2021) was a French director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Life and career Tavernier was born in Lyon, France, the son of Geneviève (née Dumond) and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, s ...

in 1980 as ''

Death Watch ''Death Watch'' (french: La Mort en direct) is a 1980 science fiction film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It is based on the 1973 novel ''The Unsleeping Eye'' by David G. Compton. The film was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film F ...

'', starring

Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He first rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with ...

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

and

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

. Subsequent editions of the novel were published as ''Death Watch''. The story is set in the near future, in a welfare state. A journalist is operated on so that what he sees is transmitted to a TV studio. He pursues a woman who is dying of an incurable disease, and provides viewers with voyeuristic images of her private anguish.

Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...

praised ''The Unsleeping Eye'' as a novel that "fulfills all of its extraordinary promise.""Galaxy Bookshelf", ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'', October 1974, p.93 The book was republished under the original title of ''The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe'' by New York Review Books in 2016 (ISBN 97781590179710) with an introduction by Jeff Vandermeer.

References

1973 British novels 1973 science fiction novels British novels adapted into films DAW Books books {{1970s-sf-novel-stub