The Details
Shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024
WINNER OF THE AUGUST PRIZE 2022 (BEST FICTION)
'[A] miraculous sort of novel' Hernan Diaz
'I wish I could write like this' Fredrik Backman
'So good that I kept underlining passages so I could reread them later' Mark Haddon
'Mesmerizing and hot to the touch' THE NEW YORK TIMES
'Textured insights into human nature' NEW YORKER
'Wistfully recalls a time when what was lost stayed lost' THE TIMES
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
'A woozy, affecting dive into desire, domination and memory' FINANCIAL TIMES
'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
Customer Reviews
Colourful Portraits
“The Details” consists of four sections, each describing a significant person from the author’s life. The first, “Johanna”, is a fascinating read and takes the reader right into Ia Genberg’s radar. So well crafted how the love to this strong character Johanna came with sacrifice and bitter disappointment in the end.
The second person, Nikki, sparkles through her extreme emotions and sudden changes, an almost funny portait of a young student on the “borderline”, ever the adventurer but pulled downwards and sometimes toxic for others. The highlight here is the ending with the narrators laborious search for Nikki in another country, which is rewarded by a grand scolding but still successful. Gorgeous the detail of receiving the swimming bag with her favourite novel.. The third, lover Alejandro is just a fine treat, whereas I felt that the titular portrait of mother Birgitte was weak and far less well written than the other three.
In summary: Here is a new writer to be discovered and to be admired !