Fever
Translated by Alice Whitmore
Overview
A multi-award winning Italian debut, from a bold new voice in contemporary queer literature.
Jonathan is 31 years old, living in Milan with his boyfriend of three years and their two Devon Rex cats when, on a day like any other, he gets a fever. But unlike most, this fever doesn’t go away; it's constant, low-level, and exhausting. After spending weeks Googling his symptoms and documenting his illness, he finally sees a doctor. A series of blood tests, anxious visits to hospitals, and repeated misdiagnoses ensue, until his doctor suggests an HIV test, and the truth is finally revealed: Jonathan is HIV-positive.
As Jonathan comes to terms with what this diagnosis will mean for him, his future, and his relationships, he also takes the reader back in time, in search of his history, to the suburbs where he grew up, and from which he feels he has escaped: Rozzano, the ghetto of Milan, and of Italy’s north. In the vein of Edouard Louis and Virginie Despentes, Fever is at once a deeply personal story and a searing examination of class, poverty, prejudice, and opportunity in modern Europe.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Other rights
- Paperback
- 210mm x 135mm
- 352 pages
- 9781922310903
- AUD$29.99
- 3 May 2022
- WORLD ENGLISH
- CLEMENTINA LIUZZI LITERARY AGENCY
Categories
Awards
- Shortlisted for the 2023 ABDA Award for Best Literary Fiction/Poetry Cover
- Winner of the 2021 The Sila Prize
- Winner of the 2020 The POP (Premio Opera Prima)
- Winner of the 2020 The Edoardo Kihlgren Prize Opera Prima
- Winner of the 2020 The Bagutta Prize Opera
- Shortlisted for the 2020 The Strega Prize
- Shortlisted for the 2020 The John Fante Prize
- Shortlisted for the 2019 The Giuseppe Berto Prize
- Longlisted for the 2020 The Premio Procida Elsa Morante
Praise
‘Bazzi captures the longing, the wounds, and the joys of growing up queer and working class in 1980s Milan — and what it means to recalibrate your world amid the aftershocks of a life-changing diagnosis. I read it in a single sitting.’
‘Jagged and tender, forthright and sly, this book felt so committed to its fierce, wise vision of the joys and terrors of having a body and living a life. It tells us real things, in a rich voice, with force and passion and insight. I couldn't put it down.’
About the Author
Jonathan Bazzi was born in Milan in 1985. They have written for various newspapers and magazines, including Gay.it, Vice, and The Vision. Their first novel, Fever, was hailed as a significant addition to queer literature and won the Sila, Premio Opera Prima, Edoardo Kihlgren, and Bagutta literary prizes.
Translator
Alice Whitmore is a writer and literary translator living on Eastern Maar country. Her translation of Mariana Dimópulos’s Imminence was awarded the 2021 NSW Premier’s Translation Prize.