Author: Ia Genberg
While departing Sweden this summer, I purchased Ia Genberg’s “The Details” at the airport, rushing to my gate and promptly forgetting about it — but it was fitting. I rediscovered it in my travel bag this autumn on a different, shorter flight, the perfect type of book for floating through clouds and toggling between cities, countries, or memories.
First published in Swedish as “Detaljerna” in 2022, it won the prestigious August Prize and was shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, with the English translation by Kira Josefsson praised for preserving the novel’s crisp, luminous prose.
Josefsson is known for bringing contemporary Swedish literature to English-speaking readers with clarity and nuance.
Genberg, born in Stockholm in 1967, is a journalist by profession and knows how to tersely capture both facts and feelings accurately and concisely. “The Details” is her fourth novel, following earlier works, all well received.
This novel, written from the perspective of the same woman, is structured in four vignettes, each dedicated to a different person who meant a great deal to the narrator. These chapters are seemingly separate yet somehow are also intertwined, forming a mosaic of memory and intimacy.
Johanna, who was once such a close figure who later becomes a famous television host and a complete stranger; Niki, a roommate with a peculiar past who vanishes into thin air; Alejandro, whose presence is intense yet fleeting; and Birgitte, her mother. All four resurface in vivid flashes that explore how relationships shape identity, linger, and sometimes fade.
While reading, I felt as though I simultaneously knew these people and did not know them at all. It made me wonder who I would write about — or who might write about me — if such a format were to be replicated.
The structure mirrors the workings of recollection, with characters appearing in gestures, shared objects and sudden absences — gradually forming a tapestry of intimacy and longing. It is a melancholic book.
Genberg’s prose is restrained yet lyrical, attentive to the smallest details that define connection. The novel’s power lies less in plot than in atmosphere, evoking a pre-digital world where people could disappear entirely. I wonder if she should have dedicated a chapter to her own name.
The novel lingers long after the final page. You can finish it by the time your luggage arrives at the next destination.
