Single minded by Marina Auer: an inter-review

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Single minded by Marina Auer (Kwela, 2024)

Title: Single minded
Author: Marina Auer
ISBN: 9780795710100
Publisher: Kwela

Rats, secrets and murders all in a day’s work at Eden! Author Marina Auer has cleverly caught the essence of the medical field, superstition and a young doctor’s search for the truth in a thrilling and disturbingly good fiction story. The cover blurb says it all: “Welcome to Eden. Good luck getting out alive.” Marina Auer is a medical doctor with a passion for writing suspense novels. The cover of Single minded will steal your attention, suggesting what you can expect: you are in trouble.

With Single minded set in a fictional KZN state hospital, Eden, Auer has managed to, ever so lightly, tread on the thin line between the thriller and horror as genres. She would like to write pure horror novels, she has said in an interview: “When you put something out into the world, you never know how it will be received. As a medical doctor, I think I am a little blunted to the horrors of that kind of medical setting.”

Single minded follows hot on the heels of the trial of her first novel, Double edged, and was born out of Auer’s own internship experiences: violent villains, unexplained deaths and an incompetent system. What else can go wrong? “Apart from the murders, the medical incidents in the novel are real, even the rats in the beds and chickens running through ICU.” Auer goes on to say that she has softened the situations a bit – as “the real horrors I experienced as an intern would be unbelievable” – but the stories are based on true events. Single minded is set in 2002, at the height of the aids pandemic in South Africa, and Auer says she is happy that she was able to bring that part of our history into the book.

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The reader is thrown into the world of trauma the author knows so well. We can process it while reading about a fictional someone else processing it in their own way. Not unlike real life, there is always more going on than what you can see on the surface, behind closed doors and smiling faces.
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When desperate needs outpace scarce resources, a young doctor gets caught up in a deadly trinity of medicine, corruption and superstition. Murphy Meyer, the fictional doctor in the novel, has her own reasons for coming to work at Eden, and she will soon figure out whether Eden is a safe haven or hell. Will she be alive long enough to learn the truth and unravel the mystery she has tasked herself with? The reader is thrown into the world of trauma the author knows so well. We can process it while reading about a fictional someone else processing it in their own way. Not unlike real life, there is always more going on than what you can see on the surface, behind closed doors and smiling faces.

Marina Auer (Photo: provided)

Since childhood, Auer has always been attracted to reading horror stories, with her own favourites being authors like Stephen King, Lisa Gardner and Robin Hobb, yet she is a devout reader across diverse genres, including classical authors like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Auer began writing fiction in 2018, but says she appreciates the authentication her factual writing brings to her novels. “My brain is just too rooted in science now to come up with fantasy and horror, and I enjoy it when fiction touches on the truth and deeper meaning in people’s lives.” For now, she is comfortable with writing suspense and thrillers, saying that “mystery still excites me as a writer”. To her, the genre is like the medical field, and her philosophy for writing fiction is as it is for medicine: sharing stories of integration, hope and healing. “You are dealing with life-and-death scenarios, on-edge stuff, with people being cut down to their basic instinct, because they are so close to death, whether it is in the medical setting or in a scenario in the story.”

Single minded has excellent characterisation. Each character’s presence is relevant and plays a vital role in the story. Just like with the title, Auer chose the main character’s name for a very specific reason, and the reader will understand this as Murphy embarks on her journey to achieve her goals for coming to work at Eden. “The story is within the structure of the hospital as well as in the characters’ minds.”

Auer says that unlike with her first book, where the lead character was built on a colleague’s characteristics, she has since become more discreet when using people’s personalities in her characters. She says that although Single minded’s characters are roughly built on people she knows, they do not represent any specific people. “I don’t ever want to make a caricature out of someone I know. I observe people and then take a bit of essence of that person and build on that.” Jokingly, she says that some people might still see themselves in a character: “I hope not, specially not the villains!”

Marina Auer has spent time working in both state facilities and private practices, even juggling the two for a few years before going into private practice in 2008. Her medical work is now theatre-based and varied. “Some days, I help tug reluctant babies into the world; other days, we section out brain tumours.”

Her free time is writing time. “In theory, I should have more time, but time does get gobbled up. I try to be productive in my free time.” Before having kids, she was a night owl, but you will now find her in bed by 9:00 pm, and she wakes up to a much-needed cup of coffee. Her last meal of choice would be a spicy curry. Although dogs are loyal creatures, Auer is a cat lover, and her favourite holiday destinations are places that are brimming with history “and somewhere I don’t have to worry about cooking or making beds”. This writer-doctor says what gets her through a bad day is the saying, “It is what it is” – figure it out and move on. “I even use it on my kids.”

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“We are not producing enough doctors for specialised posts, despite the interest of kids wanting to study medicine. Also, there is a rising global crisis in the nursing profession. And that is really where the buck stops in a hospital, with the nursing care.” – Marina Auer
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As a medical practitioner, Auer enjoyed state work, even with its challenges. She now thinks she should have spent more time in state facilities; it would have been good research for her books, she teases. She acknowledges that “the horrors are out there” due to the lack of medical care in state hospitals and clinics, adding that medical staff are under a lot of pressure and strain. “We are not producing enough doctors for specialised posts, despite the interest of kids wanting to study medicine. Also, there is a rising global crisis in the nursing profession. And that is really where the buck stops in a hospital, with the nursing care.”

With another two books in the works, her dream for Single minded is to see the fictional Eden hospital become real on screen. As for storytelling, she promises to keep writing, marrying the fields of creative writing and science. “I will keep on putting out horrendous situations and see what comes up.”

Auer is a graduate of the University of Cape Town Medical School. She lives with her family, two teenagers, a husband and two cats, in Durban.

Fun fact? She trained in Brazilian ju-jitsu for several years. “I’ve participated in one ‘cage fight’, which is a memory I’d rather erase, but one I call on to add authenticity to the action scenes I draft! Those first attempts will stay in a locked drawer, along with the trophy I received for that cage fight – second place out of two contenders!”

Single minded has been shortlisted for the Island Prize, an annual competition that promotes African fiction writers.

Also read:

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