Description
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.
‘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
‘[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
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE AUGUST PRIZE 2022 (BEST FICTION)
WINNER OF THE AFTONBLADET LITERARY PRIZE 2022
