This Devastating Fever
Published on 2. March 2023
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-76115-157-6 (ISBN)
Description
'This Devastating Fever is a very good novel.' - Howard Jacobson, New Statesman
'I loved this book. I absolutely loved it.' - Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Barracuda
'This is a great novel of enduring significance and enormous beauty.' - Sydney Morning Herald
Sometimes you need to delve into the past, to make sense of the present.
Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come. Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague.
Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is a dazzlingly original novel about what it's like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.
'I loved this book. I absolutely loved it.' - Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Barracuda
'This is a great novel of enduring significance and enormous beauty.' - Sydney Morning Herald
Sometimes you need to delve into the past, to make sense of the present.
Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come. Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague.
Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is a dazzlingly original novel about what it's like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.
Reviews / Votes
This Devastating Fever is a very good novel. -- Howard Jacobson * New Statesman *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Australia
Illustrations
Text only
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-76115-157-6 (9781761151576)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sophie Cunningham AM is the author of seven books, across multiple fiction and nonfiction, children and adults and include City of Trees - Essays on life, death and the need for a forest, and Melbourne. She is also editor of the collection Fire, Flood, Plague: Australian writers respond to 2020. Sophie's former roles include as a book publisher and editor, chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, editor of the literary journal Meanjin, and co-founder of The Stella Prize celebrating women's writing. She is now an adjunct professor at RMIT University's non/fiction Lab. In 2019, Sophie was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her contributions to literature.