THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024WINNER 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'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'A fever dream . . . A feat of characterization, a triumph of lending language and profundity to observations of daily life' LITERARY HUB