It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Broken

Broken

Summary

A writer wakes one night to find a strange man in her bedroom. He is a character she has invented, but not yet used, and so desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house.

She creates him for Alvar Eide, a quiet, middle-aged man whose life is carefully designed to avoid surprise, but when a young heroine addict comes into the gallery where he works, Alvar's life is changed forever and his inventor realises that she cannot control the character she has created. The result is a superb novel that plays with the boundaries of fact and fiction.

Reviews

  • Harrowing and shocking
    Independent

About the author

Karin Fossum

Karin Fossum’s critically acclaimed novels have won numerous prizes. She is two-time winner of the prestigious Riverton Award and has also won the Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel, an honour shared with Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her highly acclaimed Inspector Sejer series has been published in more than forty countries.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more