A woman wakes up in the middle of the night. A strange man is in her bedroom. She lies there in silence, paralyzed with fear.The woman is an author and the man one of her characters, one in a long line that waits in her driveway for the time when she'll tell their stories. He is so desperate that he has resorted to breaking into her house and demanding that she begin. He, the author decides, is named Alvar Eide, forty-two years old, single, works in a gallery. He lives a quiet, orderly life and likes it that way? - no demands, no unpleasantness. Until one icy winter day when a young drug addict, skinny and fragile, walks into the gallery. Alvar gives her a cup of coffee to warm her up. And then one day she appears on his doorstep.
Broken is an unconventional, subtle, and disturbing mystery from a master of the form.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
"With its remarkably detailed portrait of Eide ... a gift by Fossum's devotees; others may find it more a fleshed-out novelette, albeit in the author's typically crisp and insightful prose." - Library Journal
"[An] odd departure from her Inspector Sejer series...Despite an intriguing concept, Fossum never fully sheds the artificiality of a writer writing about a writer writing." - Publishers Weekly
"A chamber play for two characters...The result is slender but haunting." - Kirkus
"Fossum's short but powerful novel is a treat for all writers but will appeal to any reader willing to look just a bit beneath the surface." - Shelf Awareness
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