Body Double - Hardcover

by Hanna Johansson (Author), Kira Josefsson (Translator)

In this Hitchcockian literary thriller, two women who fall in love and move in together begin to resemble each other, while elsewhere a young woman who works transcribing recordings for a ghostwriter receives a strange message that will come to upend her life

Naomi and Laura meet by chance at a department store café when Naomi mistakenly takes Laura's coat. A strange magnetism is sparked during this first encounter, and eventually they form a romantic relationship and Laura moves in with Naomi. She tells Naomi little about herself, and appears to have no real life outside their relationship--but Naomi, lonely despite her job, friends, and hobbies, is convinced that their love was meant to be. As time goes by, Laura changes her appearance to resemble Naomi and soon begins to take her place in the world.
In the same city, a nameless woman works for a ghostwriter, transcribing recordings of his clients recalling their lives. Her weeks all look the same, and she moves in a predictable pattern between her home, the ghostwriter's office, a café, and a movie theater. After hearing something on a recording that appears to be addressed to her, however, she gets the sense that she is being watched.
From Hanna Johansson, the critically acclaimed author of Antiquity, this alluring and propulsive thriller, explores deception and authenticity, obsession, and the uncanny.

Author Biography

HANNA JOHANSSON is a Swedish writer and critic who writes on such topics as art, literature, and queer issues. Antiquity, her debut novel, won the 2021 Katapultpris and was short-listed for the Borås Tidning Debutant Prize.

KIRA JOSEFSSON is a writer, editor, and translator working between Swedish and English. Her translations have been short-listed for the International Booker Prize and the Bernard Shaw Prize. She lives in the borough of Queens, New York, and writes on U.S. events and politics in the Swedish press