Staff Review of: Cape Fever

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids is a quiet, psychological exploration of power, history and writing. Set in a fictionalised Cape Town just after World War 1, we follow Soraya, a Muslim woman who is searching for a job. When she becomes employed as a live-in maid by Mrs Hattingh, she slowly understands her employer’s idiosyncrasies. Davids injects the story with a dose of the gothic, which invites the reader into Soraya’s world of djinns and ghosts, whilst staying consistently grounded.

The relationship between the two women takes a turn when Mrs Hattingh offers to write letters for Soraya to her fiancé, while Soraya dictates. This reveals the careful game Soraya must play, appearing to be obedient and trustworthy by deceiving her employer into believing she can’t read or write English. However, Soraya begins to suspect that Mrs Hattingh may be deceptive in her own way. With an explosive ending that feels both cathartic and spooky, Cape Fever is an excellent work of historical fiction that balances genres and crafts excellent characters.