The Details

About the book

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, author of TRUST
'I wish I could write like this' Fredrik Backman, author of A MAN CALLED OVE
'Mesmerizing and hot to the touch' Catherine Lacey, NEW YORK TIMES
'Textured insights into human nature' THE 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