The Details
On a day when she lies in bed with a fever, the unnamed narrator remembers four people from her life (two lovers, a friend, and her mother). A novella consists of four chapters, each focusing on one person and books read during this period.
Literature was our favorite game. Johanna and I introduced each other to authors and themes, to eras and regions and singular works, to older books and contemporary books and books of different genres. We had similar tastes but opinions divergent enough to make our discussions interesting.
Genberg
not only makes a character study of these people but, throughout the
novel, in these four portraits, also reveals a great deal about the
narrator. So, through details of relationships with Johanna, Niki,
Alejandro, and her mother, Birgitte, we learn the story of the
narrator’s life.
The Details is a quiet novella that reads like a memoir, although it is totally fictional.
When I was younger I often thought I should travel more and farther, spend more time in foreign countries, that I should be in a constant state of velocity so that I could get out there and truly live, but with time I have come to understand that everything I was looking for was right here, inside of me, inside the things that surround me, in the money jobs that became my actual jobs, in the constancy of the everyday, in the eyes of the people I meet when I allow my gaze to linger.
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| Goodreads |
Literature was our favorite game. Johanna and I introduced each other to authors and themes, to eras and regions and singular works, to older books and contemporary books and books of different genres. We had similar tastes but opinions divergent enough to make our discussions interesting. There were certain things we didn’t agree on (Oates, Bukowski), others that left us both unmoved (Gordimer, fantasy), and some we both loved (Klas Östergren, Eyvind Johnson’s Krilon trilogy, Lessing). I could tell how she felt about a book based on how fast she worked her way through it. If she was reading fast (Kundera, all crime fiction), I knew she was bored and rushing to be done, and if she was going too slow (The Tin Drum, all sci-fi), she was equally bored but had to struggle to reach the last page.
- author: Ia Genberg
- full title: The Details: A Novel
- genre: literary fiction
- format/type: bookfiction
- country: Sweden
- topics: #memories, #relationships
- publisher: HarperVia
- publish date: August 8, 2023
- pages: 144
Literary Awards:
- Augustpriset for Fiction (2022),
- Svenska Dagbladets litteraturpris Nominee (2022),
- Tidningen Vi:s litteraturpris Nominee (2022),
- International Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2024)
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
About the Author:
la Genberg began her writing career as a journalist. She is the author of the novels Söta fredag (Sweet Friday) Sent farväl (Belated farewell), and The Details, her English language debut, which won the 2022 August Prize; and the short story collection Klen tröst & fyra andra berättelser om pengar (Small comfort & four other tales about money). She lives in Sweden.
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