Jonathan Bazzi

Fever is autofiction, describing Jonathan’s symptoms and later HIV diagnosis with alternate chapters on growing up in a poor suburb of Milan. It’s heartfelt and emotional, both good and bad. The translation captures so well all of Jonathan’s emotions as they puzzle over their symptoms, then tries to make sense of their diagnosis.

Jonathan is just a normal person living in Milan with their boyfriend and cats. They teach yoga and study. But one day a fever comes and doesn’t disappear. Jonathan seeks medical advice, which turns up nothing, then turns to Googling their symptoms (each one scarier and more serious than the next). They are eventually tested for HIV and the result is positive. It takes time and a range of emotions and symptoms for Jonathan to come to terms with this. This narrative is interspersed with Jonathan’s youth in Rozzano, a poor area in Naples. Their parents are divorced, and Jonathan spends a significant part of their youth living and visiting both sets of grandparents while their mother takes time to heal and to earn money for them both. It’s not easy for the young Jonathan, who enjoys makeup, Wonder Woman and all things little boys in Rozzano should not. Jonathan is clever, but finds that it is hard to concentrate in high school, let alone know what you want to be. Their tensions, problems and emotions run together between past and present as young Jonathan looks for somewhere to fit in and present-day Jonathan tries to make sense of their diagnosis.

In one way, Fever is part coming of age novel. In another, it’s looking at HIV as a chronic illness rather than a death sentence. While there are a lot of emotions covered, Jonathan’s actions or inactions are never viewed through rose tinted glasses. It’s brutally honest which makes the story much the richer. It’s easy to feel how trapped Jonathan feels at times growing up and how terrifying the failure of their body is to them. Jonathan’s need to be diagnosed with something in addition to HIV (which they note, is not a death sentence) is frantic and feverish. All the evidence points to a body that no longer wants to work the way it should, yet their feelings are not validated by medical science. Jonathan’s quest to find a diagnosis and the relief when they do so is like a race, gaining in pace and seriousness. The alternate chapters as Jonathan finishes high school share similar anxieties about love, family and fitting in.

A story of family, feeling different and growing into the path that has been chosen for you, Fever sucks the reader in to Jonathan’s world. A fantastic debut novel with heart.

Thank you to Scribe for the copy of this novel. My review is honest.

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