The Secret History meets Jewish horror meets Jonathan Safran Foer in this exciting debut novel about a Jewish family in contemporary London.
Hannah and Eric are a successful couple living in North London with their three children and Eric’s father, Yosef, a survivor of the camps. They are devout Jews who believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament, all except for their youngest son, Tovyah.
The death of Yosef fractures the family’s apparent harmony and has a disastrous effect on Elsie, the model daughter, who disappears for four days, plunging her parents and siblings into a living nightmare. When she returns, just as mysteriously as she left, she is strangely altered.
Witnessing the complete transformation of their daughter’s personality and some increasingly hard-to-explain events, Hannah and Eric begin to suspect Elsie is under the influence of black magic while Tovyah, a brilliant university student, believes his sister is suffering a mental collapse caused by his parents’ antiquated beliefs.
But who is right? And can the family be reconciled before tearing itself apart?
(P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Hannah and Eric are a successful couple living in North London with their three children and Eric’s father, Yosef, a survivor of the camps. They are devout Jews who believe in the literal truth of the Old Testament, all except for their youngest son, Tovyah.
The death of Yosef fractures the family’s apparent harmony and has a disastrous effect on Elsie, the model daughter, who disappears for four days, plunging her parents and siblings into a living nightmare. When she returns, just as mysteriously as she left, she is strangely altered.
Witnessing the complete transformation of their daughter’s personality and some increasingly hard-to-explain events, Hannah and Eric begin to suspect Elsie is under the influence of black magic while Tovyah, a brilliant university student, believes his sister is suffering a mental collapse caused by his parents’ antiquated beliefs.
But who is right? And can the family be reconciled before tearing itself apart?
(P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Reviews
Toby Lloyd's slow burn of a debut novel is in the tradition of the pentagonal family saga, a subgenre that might include Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections . . . Fervour is written with a rare precision and lingers in the mind long after reading. The quality of Lloyd's prose alone ensures that anything he writes next will be worth investigating
Fervour is the book we need now. Bracing, compassionate, wise, terrifying - this beautifully written novel will haunt your dreams. That is, if you can put it down long enough to get any sleep
Intriguing, propulsive and profoundly disturbing, this is a fearless look into the dark heart of family politics from a naturally gifted storyteller
Both a provocative work of Jewish horror and a modern biblical tale, Fervour is the tightly coiled story of an idiosyncratic family whose unlikely survival skills also spell its doom
A gripping and powerful story of a British Jewish family visited by ghosts and divided by politics . . . Fans of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Stephen King alike will thrill to this superb modern folk tale
Lloyd's suspenseful debut novel propels the reader deep into the heart of an idiosyncratic family . . . Infused with motifs from Jewish folklore and classic horror films, Fervour animates themes of betrayal, belief and the past's long tail
A North London Jewish family, by turns close-knit and dysfunctional, take centre stage in Lloyd's remarkable debut . . . Lloyd has given himself a large canvas, peopled with complex characters, but produced a work of real poignancy
Lloyd splices paranormal chills with domestic intrigue in this tense debut about the disintegration of a devout Jewish family who suspect their daughter is possessed . . . A rich and dark stew that mixes ingredients from the Bible and the headlines, with a biting send-up of the vampiric nature of writing itself
This is a stylish, puzzling, mystical novel that offers no easy answers to how its characters - or its readers - might react in the wake of destruction. Inviting discussion rather than providing resolution, Fervour marks the arrival of an intriguing and intelligent new voice
In one of the most perceptive of her late essays, 'God's Language', Toni Morrison sets out her objective as a novelist: 'to construct a work in which religious belief is central to the narrative itself.' How, she asks, can the writer use the language religion has handed us in a way that the 21st-century reader can hear? Not an easy task - but one that Toby Lloyd, in his magnificent, indelible debut novel, Fervour, takes on with confidence, and with resounding success . . . In the final act of Fervour, Lloyd orchestrates a meeting of his main characters at the Rosenthals' house. In scenes that echo the end of Philip Roth's American Pastoral, at a family dinner with everyone present, all the early promise of the novel comes to fruition . . . Also, biblical. Which puts me back in mind of that Toni Morrison essay. That a young British novelist, on his first try, should have so effectively taken up a gauntlet laid down by the greatest American novelist of an era might seem surprising. But maybe not . . . Enriching his story with detail and above all heart, Lloyd has crafted a lasting allegory of our dark historical time
Darkly comedic in parts, yet deeply disturbing and utterly compelling, Fervour is an exceptional debut novel, one that will stay with me.