In a Strange Room

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In a Strange Room
In a Strange Room (Galgut novel).jpg
AuthorDamon Galgut
CountrySouth Africa
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherAtlantic Books
Publication date
April 2010
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages256 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN978-1848873223 (hardback edition)

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.

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.

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