WINNER OF THE 2014 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT AWARD
WINNER OF THE 2016 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS PEOPLE'S CHOICE
WINNER OF THE 2016 WESTERN AUSTRALIA PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS PEOPLE'S CHOICE
For nearly five years I have wanted to write something about the surrealist painter Emil Bafdescu: about his paintings, one of which hangs in a little restaurant in Melbourne, and about his disappearance, which is still a mystery. But this is probably not going to be the book I imagined. Nothing has quite worked out the way I planned.
With the small inheritance he received upon his father’s death, Miles has come to Europe on the trail of the Romanian surrealist, who disappeared into a forest in 1967. But in trying to unravel the mystery of Bafdescu’s secret life, Miles must also reckon with his own.
Faced with a language and a landscape that remain stubbornly out of reach, and condemned to wait for someone who may never arrive, Miles is haunted by thoughts of his ex-girlfriend, Alice, and the trip they took to Venice that ended their relationship.
Uncanny, occasionally absurd, and utterly original, Fever of Animals is a beautifully written meditation on art and grief.
PRAISE FOR MILES ALLINSON
‘Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.’ Readings Monthly
‘The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals… audacious, clever, and original’ Australian Book Review
‘A "voice-driven" narrative par excellence, at the heart of which is a sensually evoked life … Allinson's distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief, and what it means to be an artist with integrity.’
Jude Cook, Literary Review
‘[An] exceptional first novel … full of art and ideas, and yet so intimate that it feels like a conversation with a dear, intelligent friend … masterful in its treatment of time and memory, and filled with such clarifying moments of observation and insight that it is heartbreaking to reach the final page. This is an exquisite, painterly novel, and Allinson is a writer destined for a cult following.’
Emily Bitto, Stella Prize-winning author of The Strays
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‘It’s thrilling to read writing like this. Panels of visual perfection strung throughout give sustained lapidary brilliance … There’s a lot of learned conversation about art and art history … [and] some tender and anguished inquiries about whom we love and why … Underneath all of this is the eternal question about how to be authentically yourself in the world … [A]n extravagantly good novel. Not only does it have assurance and authority, it is made with that remarkable magical force of authenticity.’
Helen Elliott, Saturday Age
‘As this fever-dream of a novel veers between the quotidian and the nightmarish, it asks vital and difficult questions about the role of art, politics, madness, identity and intimacy … [a] deeply impressive debut.’ Five Stars
Veronica Sullivan, Books & Publishing
‘[A] cerebral novel, passionately invested in the intellectual and cultural value of artistic production … From Balaclava and St Kilda to London, Berlin, Venice and Bucharest, Allinson’s novel ranges far and wide, anchored by the all-encompassing interiority of its unsettled protagonist’s first person narrative … Disparate timeframes, geographically distant locations and even different textual modes are seamlessly woven together, inviting the reader to reflect on the different ways a novel can take form — and indeed, the different forms a novel can take … [Fever of Animals] moves effortlessly between the streets of Fitzroy or London and a world of haunted Romanian forests and fevered dreams.’
Sophia Barnes, Sydney Review of Books
‘Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.’
Sam Cooney, Readings Monthly
‘Heartfelt, darkly comic, and nothing short of extraordinary. Allinson’s novel is a rarity — fearless, finely judged and alive with mystery.’
Andrew Croome, author of Midnight Express and Document Z
‘[Allinson] has a distinctive and rare authorial voice, one that is alive with wit, intelligence, and energy … An outstanding new talent.’
Toni Jordan
‘This is the book on everyone's lips right now … Offbeat and superbly written.’
Tessa Connelly, Canberra Weekly
‘Weird, audacious, paradoxical and strange … Fever of Animals consistently invites us to question its claims to authenticity: what exactly is the difference between great fiction and a tremendously compelling lie, a hoax? … [A] fruitful collaboration of the critic and the fiction writer … full of bizarre, uncalculatedly stunning moments … somewhere at the intersection of lying and lyric.’
Joshua Barnes, The Newtown Review of Books
‘[A] moody, multilayered character study … from an author who is also an artist … Each moment of personal revelation is buttressed by beautifully crafted descriptions of art. Two pages are spent lovingly viewing a Caravaggio in a hot, hostile Naples, while Miles remains oblivious to his disintegrating world … At its best, Fever is a Nabokovian portrait of the artist as a broken man.’
The Saturday Paper
‘The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals… audacious, clever, and original’
Catriona Menzies-Pike, Australian Book Review
‘Allinson’s novel has a dreamlike quality … Random memories float to the surface at unexpected moments. The narrator’s perspective seems hazy, clouded as it is by grief, longing and a gnawing personal disappointment … [The book] demonstrates a devastating knack for conveying the nuances of bereavement … [E]rudite and intriguing.’
Weekend Australian
‘Despite the studied diffidence of much of its prose, this is a tightly wound and self-referential novel … abundant with references to literature and fine art … Allinson is especially good at the space that solitude allows for the hollow accounting of self-perception.’
James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings
‘A fresh, innovative tale … Conundrums abound as the ambiguity of the author-like protagonist and his heartbreak intersects with the surrealist’s obscurity and unsolved disappearance.’
Sunday Star Times
‘Allinson’s distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief and what it means to be an artist with integrity.’
Jude Cook, Literary Review
