Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She's not his mother. He's not her child. The two seem anxious and, at David's ever more insistent prompting, Amanda recounts a series of events from the apparently recent past.
As David pushes her to recall whatever trauma has landed her in her terminal state, he unwittingly opens a chest of horrors, and suddenly the terrifying nature of their reality is brought into shocking focus.
One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange and deeply unsettling psychological menace in this cautionary tale of maternal love, broken souls and the power and desperation of family.
The Man Booker International Prize judges comment: ‘Schweblin has written a strange but compelling narrative. The prose, brilliantly translated by Megan McDowell, is as mesmerising, magical and enchanting, as the strange and horrific tale it tells. This is amazing storytelling that seems to be reminding us of the uncomfortable truth that there are forces stronger than love, that love – no matter how powerful, no matter how closely guarded – cannot always protect those we love.’
Samanta Schweblin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1978 and lives in Berlin. In 2001, she was awarded first prize by both the National Fund for the Arts and the Haroldo Conti National Competition for her debut, El Núcleo del Disturbio. In 2008, she won the Casa de las Américas prize for her second collection of stories, Pájaros en la Boca. Two years later, she was listed among the Best of Young Spanish Writers by Granta magazine.
Megan McDowell has translated many modern and contemporary South American authors, including Alejandro Zambra, Arturo Fontaine, Carlos Busqued, Álvaro Bisama and Juan Emar. Her translations have been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Words Without Borders, Mandorla, and Vice, among others. Born in Mississippi in 1978, she now resides in Chile.
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
ISBN: 9781786072382
Number of pages: 160
Dimensions: 180 x 129 x 12 mm
‘A shifting, unstable fantasia inspired by fears about GM and environmental degradation’ Guardian
'Read this in a single sitting and by the end I could hardly breathe. It's a total mind-wrecker. Amazing. Thrilling.' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers
‘A book to read in one frantic sitting – bold, uncanny and utterly gripping.’ Observer, Best Fiction of 2017
‘An unnerving read, straddling the realms of the supernatural and of Argentina’s dark recent history.’ Financial Times, Best Books of 2017
‘Each layer is soaked in dread, and the dread goes so deep that it works even on the third reading.’ London Review of Books
‘This daring, ambiguous thriller is an apocalyptic lamentation for our world in free fall, a place in which nothing and no one, not even a child or a horse in a field, is safe.’ Irish Times
'Magnificent.' i newspaper
'Explosive...delivers a skin-prickling masterclass in dread and suspense.' Economist
'Terrifying and brilliant...Dangerously addictive.' Chris Power, Guardian
'Exceptionally written...a superlative work of the imagination, resonant, beguiling and truly memorable.' Spectator
‘Punches far above its weight…The sort of book that makes you look under the bed last thing at night and sleep with the light on.’ Daily Mail
‘Impossible to put down even while it forces you to cower under the sheets, queasy with unnameable fear.’ Metro
‘Samanta Schweblin’s electric story reads like a Fever Dream.’ Vanity Fair
‘Dazzling, unforgettable, and deeply strange. I’ve never read anything like it.’ Evening Standard, Books of the Year
I received a free copy of Fever Dream from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a stunning piece of writing, incredibly haunting, reflecting its title through its feverish, almost hallucinogenic prose....
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A thrilling, bleak and haunting novella, which thrives on the unreliability of memory and the dark possibilities of imagination.
Although consisting entirely of a conversation between two characters, the bold...
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Fever Dream is a difficult book to review. I found it strange but so compelling I had to read it through to see where it would lead. Odd, it most certainly is, and disturbing too. Disturbing in a subtle, taunt way... More
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