Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm

 

Nineteen year old Rafaela feels like she is lucky.  Each year, nine girls are chosen to go live and work at the majestic Olympic hotel and this year Rafaela is one of the nine.  The hotel is in the Alps and near the remote village of Strega.  She arrives and meets the eight other girls.  They are shown to a dorm room where they will all sleep together in cots.

The girls are trained in their duties but one thing is missing.  There are no guests.  The girls assume that the guests will be coming later.  They learn tasks together, work together, eat together and sleep together.  Their supervisors soon reveal a hidden cruel side and often physically chastise the girls but they continue on.

Finally, guests are to arrive.  There will be a play for them and one girl is chosen to dance in a featured spot.  The guests arrive and the party becomes wild.  Afterwards, one girl is missing, the dancer.  Did she leave with a guest?  Did something more sinister happen?

Johanne Lykke Holm is a Swedish writer.  Her novel is about the place of women in the world and how they are trained to accept what comes, even when it is a crime against them.  An early quote states that every woman's body is a crime scene and the book plays out this scenario.  The girls don't seem to be that worried about the missing girl; neither the girl's parents or the police are called as if she had just departed with a party guest even after her belongings are found in the forest surrounding the hotel.  The atmosphere is eerie and gothic and events are often hinted at, leaving the reader to decide what happened.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.