Deon Meyer on his latest novel
Deon Meyer took a big gamble with his new novel – but it’s paying off
WHO’D ever expect Deon Meyer to crank out a post-apocalyptic suspense thriller? The South African author is known for his gritty crime novels that are firmly rooted in reality – so this change of genre is bound to come as a surprise to fans.
You won’t find his beloved detective Benny Griessel anywhere within the 544 pages of his hefty new tome, Fever, which recently hit the shelves in English. It’s the story of a son searching for his father’s murderer in a world where a deadly virus has wiped out billions of people.
Although Deon (58) has already released 10 novels in English – many of them bestsellers – he reckons this is his best ever.
“I’ve never written anything and then thought it was my best book, but this feels different and it’s like something special happened,” Deon says as he chats to us at a guesthouse in Stellenbosch where he and his girlfriend, Marianne Vorster, have set up home.
It’s the story of Nico Storm who’s trying to figure out who murdered his father, Willem. After an incurable virus caused worldwide devastation, Willem established a settlement at Vanderkloof Dam on the Orange River where people have come together in a bid to create a civilised society. But from the first sentence it’s clear things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
Even though Deon is proud of his latest offering he admits he’s dying to know what fans will make of it. He says although some might be surprised at his choice of genre it really isn’t such a strange departure – even though it’s post-apocalyptic it’s still a gripping suspense thriller that will have readers hooked from the word go.
Inspiration for Fever – which was released last year in Afrikaans as Koors – struck about six years ago after Deon read the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. But even though this set the creative juices flowing, it took Deon quite a while to get to work.
“I wrote the first chapter of Fever about four years ago and read it to Marianne but that – and an ending in my head – was all I really had,” he explains. He first needed to handle a few other writing projects before he could give Fever all his attention.
Like Deon, Marianne is a creative – an artist – and when he’s working on a book he shares everything with her.
“Sometimes something will happen during the creative process that really shocks me and I’ll run to Marianne and say, ‘Come and listen to what just happened,’ and I’ll read my work to her.
“If I see she reacts the way I think she should then I know it works.”
Marianne was “angry” when she read the final twist he cooked up for his new novel. She believes the book is really going to set tongues wagging.
Deon says Fever “tapped him dry”. When he isn’t writing he and Marianne unwind by playing table tennis, going cycling and watching movies.
But after all the long hours of hard work, isn’t it wonderful that the fruits of his labour have resulted in this pageturner of a novel that will provide fans with hours of absorbing reading?
“Now I’m afraid to even look at it,” Deon says. “I know I’m looking at it through the eyes of people who haven’t read it yet and that scares me.”