A famous broadcaster writes a forgotten love letter; a friend abruptly disappears; a lover leaves something unexpected behind; a traumatised woman is consumed by her own anxiety.
In the throes of a high fever, a woman lies bedridden. Suddenly, she is struck with an urge to revisit a particular novel from her past. Inside the book is an inscription: a get-well-soon message from an ex-girlfriend.
Pages from her past begin to flip, full of things she cannot forget and people who cannot be forgotten. Johanna, that same ex-girlfriend who introduced her to Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, now a famous TV host in Sweden. Niki, the friend who disappeared all those years ago without a phone number or an address and has no online footprint. Alejandro, who gleefully campaigns for a baby despite knowing their love has no future. And Brigitte, whose elusive qualities shield a painful secret.
Who is the real subject of a portrait, the person being painted or the one holding the brush? The Details is a novel built around four such portraits, unveiling the fragments of memory and experience that make up a life. In exhilarating, provocative prose, Ia Genberg reveals an intimate and powerful celebration of what it means to be human.
