Broken by Karin Fossum

A woman wakes up and finds a man in her bedroom. He is a different kind of intruder. As a crime writer, the woman always has a long line of characters waiting to be written about. The man, a fortyish loner (whom she names Alvar Eide), has jumped the queue because he wants his story told. In Broken, Fossum alternates between the story of Alvar's lonely daily life working in an art gallery with that of his conversations with the author who is telling his story. Alvar wants answers about himself that she is not prepared to give. The author says he'll just have to wait to find out. When a young female drug addict comes into the gallery, Alvar finds himself wanting to help her. The woman is incredibly pushy and needy. Will Alvar wish he had never let her into his life? Broken is an interesting character study of a man in isolation combined with the artistic interplay between author and character and the psychological suspense of the relationship of Alvar and the junkie. Although a departure from Fossum's usual mystery series, it does have similarities to it. Broken has not yet been published in the U.S., but may be available through interlibrary loan from your library.