7 /10 1 Votes
Language English Originally published April 2010 Genre Novel Country South Africa | 3.5/5 Goodreads Publication date April 2010 Publisher Atlantic Books Nominations Booker Prize | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Pages 256 pp (hardback edition) ISBN 978-1848873223 (hardback edition) Similar Works by Damon Galgut, Literary fiction books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In a Strange Room is a 2010 novel by South African writer Damon Galgut. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010, as well as for the Ondaatje Prize.
Contents
In a strange room
Plot synopsis
The novel is divided into three sections, namely "The Follower", "The Lover" and "The Guardian". It concerns Damon, a South African writer who is infected by wanderlust as he goes backpacking abroad and meet different people. In "The Follower", Damon meets a German backpacker named Reiner in Greece, and becomes his travelling companion. Subsequently, in "The Lover", he follows a Frenchman and two Swiss fraternal twins—a man and a woman—travelling through Africa. In both Damon is aware of a homoerotic feeling which binds him to Reiner and Jerome, one of the twins. The final section takes place in India, where he is minding a female friend Anna with severe psychiatric illness and who is threatening suicide.