SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER''S AWARD FOR FICTION 2023
''This is a great novel of enduring significance and enormous beauty.'' - Sydney Morning Herald
Sometimes 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 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.
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 Women''s 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 reader''s 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 Cunningham''s 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
''[Cunningham''sdministrator, 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 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.
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 Women''s 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 reader''s 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 Cunningham''s 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
''[Cunningham''sificent 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 reader''s 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 Cunningham''s 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
''[Cunningham''sel challenges the reader''s 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 Cunningham''s 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
''[Cunningham''sdministrator, 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 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.
PRAISE FOR THIS DEVASTATING FEVER
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What an intriguing creature this novel is. As the opening pages introduce you to two apparently separate stories you may wonder where the whole thing is going. Yet as the book hits its stride you enter a beautifully crafted two-track narrative, both stories weaved effortlessly together.
One story explores the life story of Leonard Woolf, husband of Virginia, sexually repressed administrator in colonial Ceylon, core member of the Bloomsbury Set and prolific author. The other, a vaguely tortured Melbourne author struggling valiantly to complete a long-overdue novel about Leonard Woolf.
Dual narrative novels often risk the reader enjoying one story over than the other, a restlessness descending each time the less-favoured narrative appears. There was no such issue with THIS DEVASTATING FEVER. The totality of the journey, completely absorbing
A fascinating portrait of writing lives, this is an utterly original book that left me wondering if I’d encountered a quiet work of genius.