Slipping down a rabbit hole at a costume party like Alice, feeling zero gravity like a spaceman kissing a fellow alien, or drawing blood in the library ... These short stories portray a reality that is often brutal, and probe the notion of personal responsibility - when should you intervene? Here is the lost history of the Observatory Library Lady; a swimming lesson for some Kimberley wedding guests; the secret tunnel beneath Beach Road in Sea Point. Part myth, part memoir, Cabin Fever details other people's dreams and terrors, and how they merge with ours.

Diane Awerbuck is the author of Gardening at Night, which was awarded the Commonwealth Best First Book Award (Africa and the Caribbean) and was shortlisted for the International Dublin IMPAC Award. She teaches Narrative and Aesthetics, History, and English. Her reviews, essays and short stories are published regularly. Her doctorate, The Spirit and the Letter: Trauma, Warblogs and the Public Sphere, and a new novel, are due out in 2012.