fever dream samanta schweblin sparknotes

A thought-provoking story that provides ample opportunity for readers to grapple with its unanswered questions. Schweblin's sparse narrative, both familiar and mysterious, quickly grows in intensity as the hazy whispers of self-doubt and death itself descend. But things go awry when Amanda decides to bid Carla farewell. Amanda, at first dubious, becomes increasingly troubled by both mother and son and makes plans to cut their vacation short and return home. Carla shares with Amanda an unusual story about her son and her efforts to save him after he was poisoned. After arriving at a rural vacation home with her daughter, Nina, Amanda strikes up a friendship with their alluring neighbor, Carla, a local who is revealed to be David's mother. As she waits in her hospital bed, she hears the hovering voice of a young boy, David, who guides her as she recounts the events leading to her current dire situation. A young mother, Amanda, is afflicted by a sudden illness and accepts that death is imminent. Schweblin's first novel tells a frenetic, unnerving tale. One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language and translated into English for the first time, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange psychological menace and otherworldly reality in this absorbing, unsettling, taut novel. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family.įever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. –Juan Gabriel Vasquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling and ReputationsĪ young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. Fever Dream is a triumph of Schweblin’s outlandish imagination.”

“A wonderful nightmare of a book: tender and frightening, disturbing but compassionate. A first English translation by an award-winning Spanish author follows the nightmarish experiences of a dying woman and a boy beside her hospital bed, who explore the dynamics of broken souls, toxic relationships and the power and desperation of family.

Fever dream samanta schweblin sparknotes