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)