Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin narrates a strange story about a lady called Amanda, who finds herself hospitalized. Amanda is lying in a hospital bed speaking to David about unnecessary stories. David’s father is called Omar and his mother is called Carla. Amanda and David are countryside neighbors. While in the hospital, Amanda begins telling David how she got poisoned by worms. When David was three years old, Amanda traveled with her daughter, Nina, and her husband to the village. Amanda and Nina visit Carla on a farm where she works as an accountant.
David abhors her mother and dismisses all the stories Amanda tells him. In the first story, Amanda explains to David how he was taken to a witch doctor when he was a child to get healed after getting poisoned. Carla loved her son and became perturbed when he took poisoned water from a river. David’s mother took him to a traditional healer who transmigrated his soul to another person. After the process of transmigration, David started behaving weirdly. During the narration, David becomes uncomfortable and tells Amanda that the story is irrelevant.
Amanda’s stories don’t fascinate David. David makes it clear to Amanda that he wants to hear stories about worms. Any narrative which is not about worms seems to make David bored. This action corresponds to his character of killing poisoned animals. Since he was transmigrated, David has been killing animals and burying them while mourning. The mourning indicates that he is emotionally attached to animals.
