By Deon Meyer

Hodder, out now

Nico Storm looks back at his teenage years growing up in the aftermath of a terrible plague that has swept his native land of South Africa – and explains who murdered his father Willem…

Deon Meyer’s new novel is justifiably compared with Stephen King’s The Stand (by King himself no less): it’s a giant novel told in many voices, linked by a strong narrative as Nico explains to the reader the traumas and growing pains of civilisation’s rebirth. Unlike The Stand or Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, though, this isn’t a story with fantasy overtones: it is told against the backdrop of a recognisable contemporary South Africa because that’s what Meyer knows best (and that comes across again and again as you read the book), but chances are there will be equivalents to Nico’s story happening all around the globe in the world Meyer has created. Turmoil brings out the best and the worst in people, sometimes at the same time, and Meyer has brought a highly disparate group to life in these pages.

There’s a suspense element to the novel (Meyer is critically acclaimed for his crime novels) but that’s not as driving a force as you might expect. You want to know whether the utopian dreams of Nico’s father will be realised before he is murdered (and we’re told that he dies unnaturally right from the get-go – it’s not a spoiler!), and what is driving the others who come to the settlement that Willem founds.

Meyer metes out the backstory carefully along the way, using Willem Storm’s History Project (a series of interviews) primarily for this task. This allows us to get insights into the various characters before they come to take their parts in the main story – and you quickly realise that what we are not told is as important as what we are.

To say more would be to spoil some of the key twists that Meyer layers within the narrative. Fever is constantly engaging and surprising, with a teenage protagonist who acts credibly (not something that is found as regularly as it should be outside YA fiction), and a wealth of strong supporting characters.

Verdict: A very different take on the genre that will appeal particularly to fans of the original Survivors. 8/10

Paul Simpson