In A Strange Room by Damon Galgut

 

In this short novel, Damon Galgut talks of travel and those we meet along the way.  It is split into three stories.  In the first, he and a man he met by chance on another trip agree to go hiking together for several months in the mountains of Middle Europe.  As they hike they realize they didn't know each other well enough to undertake such a journey and there are power struggles.  In the second, he goes to Africa and meets up with a trio of travelers, two men and a woman.  He falls in with them but comes to despise them for their treatment of the poor people they encounter and the servants that help them.  In the last, he goes to India and takes a friend who has been having mental issues.  He thinks it will do her good to get away in a relaxing place away from the stresses of her normal life but he doesn't know that she is much sicker than he knew and that her main goal in life is to end it.

Damon Galgut is a South African author.  He has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times and his novel The Promise won the award in 2021.  His works tend to be short and focus on the relationship between people and the power struggles that most relationships turn into.  He is a traveler as these stories reflect and his work leaves the reader thinking about the emotions he relates.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.