by Gerbrand Bakker (Author), David Colmer (Translator)
A Dutch woman rents a remote farm in rural Wales. She says her name is Emilie. She is a lecturer doing some research, and sets about making the farmhouse more homely. When she arrives there are ten geese living in the garden but one by one they disappear. Perhaps it's the work of a local fox. She has fled from an unbearable situation having recently confessed to an affair with one of her students. In Amsterdam, her stunned husband forms a strange partnership with a detective who agrees to help him trace her. They board the ferry to Hull on Christmas Eve. Back on the farm, a young man out walking with his dog injures himself and stays the night, then ends up staying longer. Yet something is deeply wrong. Does he know what he is getting himself into? And what will happen when her husband and the policeman arrive? Gerbrand Bakker has made the territories of isolation, inner turmoil and the solace offered by the natural world his own. "The Detour" is a deeply moving new novel, shot through with longing and the quiet tragedy of everyday lives.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Published: 02 Feb 2012
ISBN 10: 1846555442
ISBN 13: 9781846555442
Book Overview: The new novel, set in the UK, from the author of the IMPAC Dublin prize-winning bestseller The Twin
Prizes: Winner of Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013.