In the early pages of this strange and beautifully arresting novel by the prize-winning Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin, Amanda – the book’s principal narrator lies immobile and dying in a rural hospital ward.
“This isn’t normal, David,” she says to the boy who may be present at her side. “There’s only darkness, and you’re talking into my ear. I don’t even know if this is really happening.” “It’s happening, Amanda”, replies David (whose remarks all appear in italics). “I’m kneeling at the edge of your bed, in one of the rooms at the emergency clinic. We don’t have much time, and before time runs out we have to find the exact moment.”
The moment to which David is referring to is the point in Amanda’s life at which her death would become inevitable. In an effort to identify it, he has her relate the series of apparently-recent events that have propelled her into her current terminal condition.
The work that results from this undertaking, elegantly translated by Megan McDowell, takes the form of an unconventional and dreamlike dialogue in which Amanda, at David’s prompting, attempts to recount an afternoon that she spent with his mother, Carla, at a holiday home. Amanda can envision the details of this episode with clarity. She recalls seeing her daughter, Nina, cradling a stuffed mole. She remembers the straps of Carla’s gold bikini; her “forehead leaning against the steeringwheel” of a car she is unable to drive. She imagines “large plastic buckets of water” and glasses of iced tea.
But on these bright, and brightly haunting, details, she struggles to impose order: “I’m stuck”, she tells David. “I can see the story perfectly, but sometimes it’s hard to move forward.” And when she finds it impossible to proceed, she drifts into meditations on her current condition: “I’m going to die in a few hours. That’s going to happen, isn’t it? It’s strange how calm I am. Because even though you haven’t told me, I know. And still, it’s an impossible thing to tell yourself.”
David responds to Amanda’s faltering attempts to tell her tale with chillingly laconic and affectless interjections: “None of this is important. We’re wasting time.” “What else is happening in the yard?” “Keep going, don’t forget the details.”
These demands result in the emergence of the vague outline of a narrative, but it is not the one, or not the only one, David wants to hear. For in the course of her reminiscing, Amanda revisits a conversation with Clara in which Clara explains why, for years, she has been terrified of her own son, who six years earlier was poisoned by a local stream while out looking for his father’s missing stallion; was subsequently taken to see a mysterious woman in a greenhouse who claimed to be able to save him by separating his soul from his body and migrating it to another host; and who seems to be able to kill animals merely by looking at them.
With this strand of her fiction in place, Schweblin’s creation becomes even more shifting, elusive and menacing. It is seldom clear who David is, and from whose body he is speaking (at times he seems to bleed in and out of Amanda’s daughter, Nina); remembered events unfold with malarial incoherence (Schweblin’s creation is full of temporal and topographical disruptions); and there exists a pervasive and growing sense of danger and toxicity.
The town and its populace seem “cursed” (David’s word) by ecological disaster; Amanda is consumed to the point of neurosis by the idea of “rescue distance” – shorthand for her habit of constantly calculating how far she is from her daughter and how long it would take to save her from danger. And throughout, there is a persistent return to a motif – that of “the worms” – whose significance is never spelt out, but seems to relate to each of the maladies that waft through Amanda’s reveries.
This might give the impression that Fever Dream is a demanding and frustrating affair. But Schweblin's sublime command of form, together with the power, restraint and precision of her prose, result in a work of almost fathomless intellectual and psychological richness that unfolds with the compulsiveness of a thriller.
While Amanda edges inexorably towards her death, the idea that we can protect the people we love comes to look increasingly fragile. And as it does so, the carefully modulated force of Schweblin’s writing orchestrates a crescendo of emotional intensity that leaves you feeling cathartically enervated, yearning for talk, but “immobile in the languid silence”.
Matthew Adams is a regular contributor to The Review.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
RESULTS
1.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh 50,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Hugo Lebouc (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
2pm Handicap (TB) Dh 84,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Karaginsky, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
2.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Sadeedd, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard.
3pm Conditions (TB) Dh 100,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner Blue Sovereign, Clement Lecoeuvre, Erwan Charpy.
3.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh 76,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
4pm Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Bladesmith, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh 68,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Shanaghai City, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
New Zealand
Penalties: Barrett (7)
British & Irish Lions
Tries: Faletau, Murray
Penalties: Farrell (4)
Conversions: Farrell
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
%E2%80%98FSO%20Safer%E2%80%99%20-%20a%20ticking%20bomb
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Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 575bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh554,000
On sale: now
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPAD%20PRO%20(12.9%22%2C%202022)
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Profile
Co-founders of the company: Vilhelm Hedberg and Ravi Bhusari
Launch year: In 2016 ekar launched and signed an agreement with Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. In January 2017 ekar launched in Dubai in a partnership with the RTA.
Number of employees: Over 50
Financing stage: Series B currently being finalised
Investors: Series A - Audacia Capital
Sector of operation: Transport
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
The%20specs
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ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
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Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
MATCH INFO
Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday, 8.30pm UAE
Company%20Profile
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