Cape Fever [Large Print]

By Nadia Davids

Book Overview

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From award-winning South African author Nadia Davids comes a gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s, where a young maid finds herself entangled with the spirits of a decaying manor and the secrets of its enigmatic owner.

I come highly recommended to Mrs. Hattingh through sentences I tell her I cannot read.

The year is 1920, in a small, unnamed city in a colonial empire. Soraya Matas believes she has found the ideal job as a personal maid to the eccentric Mrs. Hattingh, whose beautiful, decaying home is not far from The Muslim Quarter where Soraya lives with her parents. As Soraya settles into her new role, she discovers that the house is alive with spirits.

While Mrs. Hattingh eagerly awaits her son's visit from London, she offers to help Soraya stay in touch with her fianc Nour by writing him letters on her behalf. So begins a strange weekly meeting where Soraya dictates and Mrs. Hattingh writes--a ritual that binds the two women to one another and eventually threatens the sanity of both.

Cape Fever is a masterful blend of gothic themes, folk-tales, and psychological suspense, reminiscent of works by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Daphne du Maurier, and Soraya Matas is an unforgettable narrator, whose story of love and grief, is also a chilling exploration of class and the long reach of history.

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• Format: Hardcover
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1420534912
• ISBN13: 9781420534917
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Really good

This may not be a long tale, but it certainly caught me up and felt like a full-bodied novel as the creeping sense of wrongness emanated from the very walls of Heron Place where most everything happens. I really liked Soraya, touched by a bit of supernatural (with Grey Ladies and the stories she made) finding herself in her own sort of horror story with Mrs. Hattingh. I did like the slow creep where things changed and at first didn't seem so bad but then got twisted, all under the civility and polite "rightness" of one who thinks she is above those not of the right race or class. From traditions, to descriptions of the District, letters between Soraya and her fiance, Nour, her trips home to see her family, I could really see it and feel like I was there. Honestly, I wished several times that Soraya would refuse to bow to those little things that Mrs. Hattingh would demand (her frustration and grief and the unfairness of the situations are so easy to feel!) though the end was nicely satisfying and I did end up liking this a lot. I am glad I got the chance to read this.