It's toxic.īut then we reach the important moment, and the atmosphere of invention falls away. This is the power of the short novel: Stripped down to its essentials, story all but glows. He wants to find 'the exact moment when the worms come into being.' What worms? 'Worms in the body.'Īmanda, in response, tells David a story that she heard from his mother: David got sick after drinking river water she took him to a local healer rather than wait 'for some rural doctor who wouldn't even make it to the clinic in time ' and in order to save him, the healer removed half his soul from his body, replacing it with half a stranger's. A woman named Amanda is dying in a clinic in rural Argentina, in a town where she's gone on vacation as she dies, a child named David interrogates her about the events leading up to her sickness. The novel starts as a warped child's game. And so has the Argentine short story writer Samanta Schweblin, whose first novel, Fever Dream, is an exceptional example of the short-and-creepy form. Chilean masters José Donoso and Roberto Bolaño wrote breathtaking novellas so have present-day Mexican stars Valeria Luiselli and Carmen Boullosa. The leader of the pack is Juan Rulfo's classic Pedro Páramo, set in a town where everybody is dead, but Rulfo is in good company. Latin American literature has an excellent tradition of short and creepy novels. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Fever Dream Author Samanta Schweblin

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