The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

I enjoyed this book, which, like its protagonist's journey, slowly circled around to its inevitable conclusion with a steady and misleading pace. Futh, newly separated, visits Germany for a walking holiday after moving out of his family home and before he is to move into a new apartment. As he walks, he remembers his familial traumas (both with his wife and with his childhood family--which his mother abruptly left) and treasures a glass perfume bottle shaped like a lighthouse as a totem. But as Futh returns to Hellhaus (the town and the motel from which his journey started), we slowly realize that Futh, drawn like a moth to a flame, is about to be caught up in a story he never knew he was part of. Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize.