A nuanced look at power, control, and identity

I APPROACHED Cape Fever with a sense of uncertainty about what to expect.

- LIESL VAN DER SCHYFF

Described as a gothic and psychological novel, I found it to be quieter than its description suggests.While there are spirits present in the house, the story isn't fundamentally about ghosts. If you come to the novel expecting a full-bodied gothic horror, all creeping dread and a supernatural spectacle, you may feel slightly wrong-footed. Local author Nadia Davids, who writes novels, short stories, and screenplays, starts the story cautiously and keeps a restrained tone throughout most of the book.

This choice is significant because the true discomfort stems more from themes of power, race, and control than from supernatural elements.

Soraya Matas, a young Muslim woman from the Muslim Quarter, takes a live-in job with Mrs Hattingh, a lonely English widow living in a rundown house on the edge of a colonial city in the 1920s Cape.