Cape Fever 9781398544048 Hardback

A cleverlytold and ultimately satisfying novel, by an author bold enough toreveal uncomfortable truthsClaire Adam,GuardianEfficient, and unsettling Davids assembles the requisite parts of a Gothic novel a hysterical woman, a haunted dwelling, a perverse family secret into an elegant narrativeNew York Times Book ReviewAn exhilarating tale of twisted desire and the unexpected shape of justice, for readers ofThe SafekeepI come highly recommended to Mrs Hattingh through sentences I tell her I cannot read.1920, a small, unnamed city in a colonial empire. Soraya Matas believes she has found the ideal job as a personal maid to the eccentric Mrs Hattingh, whose beautiful, decaying home is not far from the Muslim Quarter where Soraya lives with her parents. As Soraya settles into her new role, she discovers that the house is alive with spirits.While Mrs Hattingh eagerly awaits her sons visit from London, she offers to help Soraya stay in touch with her fianc Nour by writing him letters on her behalf. So begins a strange weekly meeting where Soraya dictates and Mrs. Hattingh writes a ritual that binds the two women to one another and eventually threatens the sanity of both.Slim, taut, haunting an utterly beguiling readLucy CaldwellThe Cape Town that Nadia Davids summons up in her invaluable body of work is a riven, achingly sad place of shadows, quite unlike the comfortable, sleepy Mother City of the colonial imaginationJ. M. Coetzee