Sophie Cunningham has admired how Leonard Woolf’s (husband of Virginia) writing evoked the atmosphere of England as it raced towards World War I. His brutal descriptions of World War II, the horrific animal pandemic, the tsunami in Ceylon and the fear of Halley’s Comet’s tail wiping out life on Earth reminded Cunningham of present-day catastrophes. He is the inspiration for this book.
Alice is trying to write a book about Leonard Woolfe’s life but is constantly distracted by modern-day pressures similar to Woolf’s when he was writing. Disasters like fires, floods and pandemics keep intruding.
Cunningham entwines Leonard’s life with Alice’s by jumping back and forth from early 1900s to the early 2000s. The story also takes an imaginary, bewitching turn as the ghosts of Leonard and Virginia appear to Alice often. As Alice dives deeper into writing she discovers how Leonard and Virginia nurture their humanity in the midst of crisis.
Leonard has a magnificent garden and a love of animals. He sees a jaguar dancing in the moonlight and it reminds him of Virginia. In his final years her memory is ‘like stardust … pointing the way home’. There are many poignant and tender moments like these in the book but Cunningham’s wry humour balances this perfectly.
This Devastating Fever left me with a sense of wonder at how nature, art, love and learning from the past can sustain us. Truly wonderful reading that brings Leonard Woolf alive.
Reviewed by Judith Grace
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