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Fever Dream

Translated by Megan McDowell
Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017

Tightly wound and full of dread, Fever Dream is a chilling tale of maternal love and environmental catastrophe, from an Argentinian literary star

'The book I wish I had written' Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women and Animal

A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a remote Argentinian hospital. A boy named David sits beside her.

She's not his mother. He's not her child.

At David's ever more insistent prompting, Amanda recounts a series of events from the apparently recent past, a conversation that opens a chest of horrors. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family.

A chilling tale of maternal anxiety and ecological menace, Fever Dream is a modern classic. Samanta Schweblin's unforgettable debut is a prescient warning about our manipulation of the natural world, and an unforgettable exercise in literary suspense.

'A gloriously creepy fable' Guardian, 'Best Fiction of 2017'

About The Author

Samanta Schweblin is the author of three story collections and two novels, which have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfo Story Prize, and been translated into twenty languages. Her debut novel Fever Dream was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017, and her short-story collection Seven Empty Houses won the National Book Award for Translated Literature 2022. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Oneworld Publications (March 2, 2017)
  • Length: 192 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781786070913

Raves and Reviews

‘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

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More books from this author: Samanta Schweblin