Miles Allinson is a writer and an artist, and the author of the multi award-winning novel Fever of Animals. He lives in Melbourne.
"Like Greg Baxter and Ben Lerner, Allinson negotiates the
semi-porous boundaries between the New World and the Old, the
present and the past, English speakers and the rest. This novel is
beautifully poised, especially in its playful feints with what is
and what is not surreal. Thoughtful, readable, involving; a
seductive new literary voice."
--Richard Beard, author of Acts of the Assassins and x20 "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 "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 "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."
--Canberra Weekly "[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"
--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."
--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."
--Literary Review
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