appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

James Kidd

Fever
by Deon Meyer
Hodder & Stoughton
Deon Meyer is not a flashy crime writer. He rarely, if ever, writes non-fiction suggesting Charles Dickens was Jack the Ripper. He’s just really good, and Stephen King agrees, comparing Fever to his own novel The Stand. This hints at the packed bandwagon Meyer has leaped on: one filled with bodies killed by fast-spreading pandemics. The works Meyer seems to have in mind are Terry Nation’s Survivors (1975-77) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), reconfigured in intriguing ways. Nico Storm is 47, the same age his father was when he died in “the year of the lion”. The coincidence sparks a “memoir” that is also a murder story, involving father and son. Nico looks after his dad, who is “not a fighter” but a “thinker and a leader”. These talents inspire him to plan Amanzi, a sanctuary for South African survivors, if there are any. Actually there are, and multiple perspectives explore ideas of race, morality, history and community. Exhaustive descriptions of work (setting up farms, generators, orphanages) compete with attacks by marauders and the sense that not everyone in Amanzi is on the level. Slightly long, but both moving and gripping.


Deon Meyer’s post-apocalyptic novel is moving and gripping

In Fever, Meyer imagines the end of the world and the struggles of the few survivors, to explore ideas of race, community and history in South Africa.

A scene from The Road, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel.

Cormac McCarthy draws on Sodom and Gomorrah for a tale of American carnage

McCarthy’s epic ‘Border Trilogy’ looks at a time and place where existence was cheap in prose that draws on the Bible and Melville

James Franco cuts through Stephen King’s prose like a buzz saw

The Dead Zone, about a clairvoyant who thinks he must murder a politician to avert apocalypse, is King at his best, ably read by Franco

James Franco. Picture: AFP

Need You Dead cements Peter James’ place among modern masters

Author navigates return of Roy Grace through deft use of irony to satisfying conclusion

Peter May returns to the scene of his crime series with a new China Thrillers novella

May reunites his partners in crime-fighting, Li Yan and Margaret Campbell, for a seventh brief addition to his series of award-winning novels set in modern China

Magazines

PostMag

Culture

Books

In Fever, Meyer imagines the end of the world and the struggles of the few survivors, to explore ideas of race, community and history in South Africa.


An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In Fever, Meyer imagines the end of the world and the struggles of the few survivors, to explore ideas of race, community and history in South Africa.

In Fever, Meyer imagines the end of the world and the struggles of the few survivors, to explore ideas of race, community and history in South Africa.