This Devastating Fever (Paperback)

Sophie Cunningham

ISBN 10: 1761151495 / ISBN 13: 9781761151491

Published by Ultimo Press, 2023

About this Item

Paperback. SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIERS AWARD FOR FICTION 2023 This is a great novel of enduring significance and enormous beauty. Sydney Morning HeraldSometimes 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, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the last hundred years becomes something else altogether. Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is Sophie Cunninghams most important book to date a dazzlingly original novel about what its like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.PRAISE FOR THIS DEVASTATING FEVER a very moving novel, laced with wit, pathos, and ferocious truths The Australian Extinction, climate change, the pandemic, love and loss are all there in this vital, virtuoso candle in a jar for eternity. Australian Womens Weekly This Devastating Fever is both timely and timeless, a sophisticated work of fiction that addresses the anxieties of the present moment as well as the most profound questions of history, art, love and loss. A magnificent novel. Emily Bitto author of The Strays and Wild Abandon It takes a phenomenal control of craft, and a keenly honed intelligence, to do what Cunningham has done with this novel: to interrogate politics and art and culture, to take on love and sex and suffering and loyalty, while all the while ensuring that the reader remains buoyant and captivated by narratives that leap across space and time I loved this book. I absolutely loved it. Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and 7 Deeply humane, full of humour, and delightfully gossipy about the sex lives of the Bloomsbury Group, This Devastating Fever is innovative in format, chatty in tone and will seduce readers with its simple, direct voice. Books+Publishing Angry and enthralling, this novel challenges the readers understanding of what a novel might be. The Saturday Paper bold, cheeky, playfully energetic and utterly distinctive Guardian This Devastating Fever is thrillingly audacious fiction. Sophie Cunninghams entwined subjects are profound Leonard Woolf and colonialism, the crises of the present day, the challenges of creative work and she writes commandingly and inventively about them all. The result is an extraordinary novel. Michelle de Kretser, author of Questions of Travel and Scary Monsters a masterfully told story of intertwined literary lives, old and new The Canberra Times [Cunninghams] prose crackles and spits with a quintessentially Australian wryness, and soars when depicting the natural world in all of the novels vibrantly drawn locales (Australia, England and Sri Lanka) South China Morning Post</i Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781761151491

Bibliographic Details

• Title: This Devastating Fever (Paperback)
• Publisher: Ultimo Press
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1761151495
• ISBN 13: 9781761151491
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Sometimes you need to go deep into the past, to make sense of the present.  

Alice had not expected to spend the first twenty years 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: was the world’s technology about to crash down around her? The world’s technology did not crash. 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, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the twentieth century becomes something else altogether.

Complex, heartfelt, darkly funny and deeply moving, this is Sophie Cunningham’s most important book to date – 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.​

About the Author

<B>Sophie Cunningham</B> AM is the author of seven books, across multiple fiction and nonfiction, children and adults and include <I>City of Trees – Essays on life, death and the need for a forest</I>, and <I>Melbourne</I>. She is also editor of the collection <I>Fire, Flood, Plague: Australian writers respond to 2020</I>. 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 <I>Meanjin</I>, 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.