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The Details cover art

The Details

By: Ia Genberg, Kira Josefsson - translator
Narrated by: Julie Maisey
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Summary

An intoxicating international bestseller about a woman in the throes of a fever remembering the important people in her past, the memories laid bare in vivid detail as her body temperature races - for fans of Rachel Cusk and Lucia Berlin

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 get-well-soon 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 who introduced her to Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, now a famous TV host in Sweden. Niki, the friend who disappeared all those years ago without a phone number or an address and has no online footprint. There is Alejandro, who appears like a storm in precisely the right moment. And Brigitte, 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 an audio 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.

©2023 Ia Genberg and Kira Josefsson (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

The Details is about relationships, about love, about parents and children...about all of it. The little observations about being young, and about growing up, and about getting lost by accident, and getting lost on purpose, searching for yourself in everyone else...damn it, I've underlined half of the book. I wish I could write like this. (Fredrik Backman, New York Times bestselling author of A MAN CALLED OVE)
It's difficult to describe the experience of reading Ia Genberg's English language debut beyond saying that it resembles a fever dream . . . Genberg's prose is a feat of characterization, a triumph of lending language and profundity to observations of daily life. At a tight 150 pages, I didn't read it so much as subconsciously absorb it. (Eliza Smith)
In four succinct and arresting portraits, the narrator of The Details remembers the people who have shaped her life. At once humorous and heartbreaking, this book is an ode to the different kinds of love that form us. It asks how we hold onto the people who touch us, how we remember them, and whether we should ever let them go. I won't forget this beautiful book. (Jenna Clake, author of DISTURBANCE)

What listeners say about The Details

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Loose and tight at the same time

The best thing about this audio book is the reading. The way the reader uses emphasis is brilliant. The stresses on parts of the sentences provide additional meaning - so good. Lovely pace and a beautiful voice to listen to - very well suited to this story.

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  • Overall
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The narrator was excellent

I enjoyed this short novel. It was very engaging and a good read. The narrator was very good

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Much ado about nothing

An autobiographical look at moments in a woman’s life that is not great. The only chapter I enjoyed was about her friend who clearly had some sort of mood disorder.

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