THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE AUGUST PRIZE 2022 (BEST FICTION)
WINNER OF THE AFTONBLADET LITERARY PRIZE 2022
'Damn it, I've underlined half the book. I wish I could write like this.' Fredrik Backman, author of A MAN CALLED OVE
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 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, now a famous TV host. Niki, the friend who disappeared all those years ago. Alejandro, who appears like a storm in precisely the right moment. And Birgitte, 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.
MORE PRAISE FOR THE DETAILS:
'A novel that, through its very bones, encapsulates one of the most important ideas of our current political moment - the necessity of connection, and our vulnerability to one other' Susannah Dickey, author of TENNIS LESSONS
'An ode to the different kinds of love that form us . . . I won't forget this beautiful book' Jenna Clake, author of DISTURBANCE
'A fever dream . . . A feat of characterization, a triumph of lending language and profundity to observations of daily life' LITERARY HUB
