Johanne Lykke Holm – Faces in the Mirror

The Swedish author and translator Johanne Lykke Holm creates highly atmospheric worlds full of will-o’-the-wisps and mirror images. This is also the case in her latest novel *Faces in the Mirror* (Aki Verlag 2026, translated from Swedish by Hanna Granz), which became a hit with both the public and the press in Sweden.

Bernarda and Silas are theatre-loving children. At Malmö City Theatre, they watch the adults perform on stage whilst building a lawless, enchanted world for themselves behind the scenes. But then something happens, and twenty-five years later, Bernarda is haunted by the past she had tried so hard to repress. Johanne Lykke Holm tells a story of children and childish adults, of whimsical symbols and the uncanny that lurks beneath the surface and defies our expectations.