Broken — Karin Fossum

An inventively twisted psychological thriller from “a master of the slow build, the controlled burn” (Chicago Tribune).

In the middle of the night, a man breaks into a woman's house, finds her bedroom, and wakes her up. She's the author who could save his soul by telling his story. He's one of many characters waiting their turn -- except now he's cut the line. After all, she could die soon, leaving him lost forever. He refuses to leave until she gives him a name. And so his story begins . . .
 
Alvar Eide, forty-two and single, works in an art gallery. He maintains a quiet life -- until one icy winter morning when a drug-addicted young woman walks into his gallery to escape the cold. Alvar gives her a cup of coffee to warm her up. Soon after, she appears on his doorstep. The author is finally telling his story . . . but she never promised a happy ending.
 
Broken is an unconventional, disturbing, and thought-provoking mystery from a master of the form, and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for her crime novel The Indian Bride.
 
“Fossum crafts remarkably incisive psychological suspense: novels that carry the headlong momentum of thrillers and the acuity and weight of literary fiction.” -- The Washington Post Book World
 
“I always eagerly await a new novel from Karin Fossum.” -- Ruth Rendell
 
“Claustrophobic and intense.” -- The Independent (UK)