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, 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.