The Detour

A Dutch woman rents a remote farm in rural Wales. She says her name is Emilie. She has left her husband, having confessed to an affair. 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 detective arrive?

Originally published in the U.S. as Ten White Geese. 

Gerbrand Bakker worked as a subtitler for nature films before becoming a gardener. His debut novel, The Twin, won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and The Detour won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.