Collected Works: A Novel

Martin Berg, owner of a small, ailing publishing house, is sleepwalking into a mid-life crisis. Several years ago, Martin’s wife Cecilia disappeared from his and their children’s lives, leaving a huge void behind. Now all Martin can bring himself to do is sift through old memories - of his passionate love for his missing wife and his close friendship with the unique and immensely more remarkable artist Gustav Becker - and through the half-finished manuscript that seems to mock him and his youthful dreams.

Meanwhile Rakel, Martin’s daughter, is feeling out of place in Gothenburg. The city is preparing for a retrospective of Gustav’s work and everywhere Rakel turns she sees her mother’s face plastered on billboards - the enigmatic Cecilia, Gustav’s muse. When Rakel finds a possible clue to her mother’s fate in a book her father has given her, her world is turned upside down.

Collected Works is an engrossing family novel, a story about enduring love, the constant presence of those who are absent, lifetime friendships and art made in the borderland between truth and fiction.