Powerfully
inventive and atmospheric, a modern gothic story of nine young women
sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel and what happens when one of
them goes missing
With toiletries, hairbands, and notebooks in her bag, and at her
mother’s instruction, a nineteen-year-old girl leaves her parents’
home and the seaside town she grew up in. Out the train window, Rafa
sees the lit-up mountains and perfect trees—and the Olympic Hotel
waiting for her perched above the small village of Strega. There, she
and eight other girls receive the stiff black uniforms of seasonal
workers and move into their shared dorm. But while they toil
constantly to perform their role and prepare the hotel for guests,
none arrive. Instead, they contort themselves daily to the
expectations of their strict, matronly bosses without clear purpose
and, in their spare moments, escape to the herb garden, confide in
each other, and quickly find solace together. Finally, the hotel is
filled with people for a wild and raucous party, only for one of the
girls to disappear. What follows are deeper revelations about the
myths we teach young women, what we raise them to expect from the
world, and whether a gentler, more beautiful life is possible.
In stimulating and uninhibited imagery, Johanne Lykke Holm builds
a world laced with the supernatural, filled with the secrecy and
potential energy of girls on the cusp of womanhood. An allegory for
the societal rites, expectations of women, and violence we too easily
allow, Strega builds like a spell that keeps exerting its
powers long after reading.