Fever Dream
Translated by Megan McDowell. The original novel was published in 2014.
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.
Samanta Schweblin
Samanta Schweblin is the author of the novel, Fever Dream, a finalist for the Man Booker International and her first book translated into English. She was chosen as one of the 22 best writers in Spanish under the age of 35 by Granta and is on the Bogota39-2017 list. Her stories in Spanish have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfo Story Prize, and in English have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into 20 languages. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin.