In 1920s Cape Town South Africa, young Soraya Matas goes to work for widowed Mrs Hattingh as her maid, cook and companion. Soraya’s family is rich in history, love and imagination but poor in money and food. The money she earns from Mrs Hattingh goes to support her family. But Soraya has a rich internal world that enables her to overcome poverty and societal restrictions. Her inner world collides with the equally powerful yet emotionally bankrupt machinations of Mrs Hattingh.
Two women driven by power motivations, spend day after day together. One subservient out of necessity; the other haughty due to inherited privilege; the tension ratchets up as language becomes the weapon of choice. Mrs Hattingh is devoted to the letters sent to her by her war veteran son from London. Soraya is longs to communicate with her fiancé. Mrs Hattingh offers to write on her behalf to her fiancé, Nour. Soraya believes she has the upper hand in this dangerous game, but events change quickly.
As the seasons change, the flowers lose their blooms, and the once grand house of Mrs Hattingh shows ever more signs of disrepair, age and neglect. Broken windows allow the dust to settle over the meagre contents of the house, as mistress and servant play a dangerous game.
With echoes of Isak Dinesens’s Seven Gothic Tales and prose that slowly unleashes a torrid of images, ideas and historical facts Cape Fever by Nadia Davids is an outstanding debut. It’s a heady novel which is a treat for lovers of twisted tales laced with the trace of veracity and dreams.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nadia Davids is an acclaimed South African playwright, novelist, academic, and former President of PEN South Africa. Her debut novel An Imperfect Blessing was shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her plays At Her Feet and What Remains have been staged internationally. She has been a visiting scholar/artist at the University of California, Berkeley, and at New York University, the recipient of a Philip Leverhulme Prize, and has taught theater at Queen Mary University of London and literature at the University of Cape Town. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Scholar, Astra Magazine, The Georgia Review, and Zyzzyva Magazine. She won the 2024 Caine Prize for her short story, “Bridling.” She lives in California and was a writer in residence at Aspen Writes.
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