House without a mirror

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House without a mirror
Title of the original edition Ett hus utan speglar
author Mårten Sandén
translator Birgitta Kicherer
country Sweden
language Swedish
genre Children's book
Publication date 2012 (Hardcover Sweden)

2019 (Hardcover Germany)

pages 140
publishing company Rabén & Sjögren (Hardcover Sweden)

S. Fischer Verlag (Hardcover Germany)

ISBN 978-3-73735-464-6 (Hardcover Germany)
Website Rabén & Sjögren (Hardcover Sweden)

Fischer Verlag (Hardcover Germany)

House without a mirror (original title: Ett hus utan speglar ) is a children's book by the Swedish writer Mårten Sandén . It tells the story of a family that miraculously transforms itself into a positive through the discovery of a mirror-inverted parallel world and its resident Hetty. Topics such as self-doubt , self-confidence , sadness and happiness are taken up.

Ett hus utan speglar was published in Swedish by Rabén & Sjögren in 2012 and in German by S. Fischer Verlag in 2019 . It was translated into German by Birgitta Kicherer .

content

Thomasine spends the summer with her father's family in the house of her great-great-aunt Henrietta, who, according to Thomasine, is over 100 years old. There can be no talk of a harmonious family coexistence. She and Thomasine's father are the only ones looking after the great-great-aunt in the attic, everyone else is secretly waiting for her death and inheritance. The house is a large old mansion with 20 rooms, which is characterized by the fact that all mirrors have been hung. At the beginning of the book, Thomasine, her cousin Erland and her cousins ​​Signe and Wilma play hide and seek and the little Signe, who was shy before and rarely spoke, leaves her hiding place in the closet completely changed.

At night she reveals her secret to Thomasine. They sneak together to the closet where all the mirrors in the house are hidden. When they leave the closet, they find the house changed: everything is mirrored and the musty house shines in its old splendor. Signe and Thomasine are all alone with the resident of this house, a little girl named Hetty.

The next day Thomasine thinks she was dreaming. But a mirror that she brought Wilma with her proves the opposite. The next night Wilma goes to the Spiegelhaus herself and Thomasine follows her. There is a large library there, into which the somewhat aged Hetty leads them both. Thomasine observes how Wilma radiates inner beauty after extensive reading. The next day, Wilma and her mother leave in an argument.

Meanwhile, the common Erland cannot be found all day. In the evening Thomasine hears suppressed screams and decides to look for Erland in the mirror house. In fact, he is there in the basement, transformed into a mixture of humans and animals. In order to save Erland, Thomasine has to tell his father Daniel. Erland is also transformed the next day, because all evil that had previously taken hold of him has disappeared. He is also leaving with Daniel and Signe.

Now only Thomasine and her father remain with Henriette. The following night Thomasine enters the mirror house again and sticks photos in picture albums with Hetty, who is now a young woman. She expresses her disappointment that she will not see any change. However, Hetty only gives cryptic answers.

During the day it happens by chance that Thomasine is alone with Henriette. When she discovers Hetty's photo albums on a bench, she realizes that Hetty is her great-great-aunt in her younger years. Henriette, who usually lay motionless in her bed, advises Thomasine to take her father to the Spiegelhaus. Thomasine does so, and when the father's most heartfelt wish is fulfilled there to hold his dead son in his arms again, the two finally experience their change too.

The book gives an outlook on the time after Henriette's death, in which, with the exception of Thomasine's aunt, who sells her share, all live in the house, which has now been divided into apartments, and look to a happy future. Thomasine's parents, who have found each other again, are even expecting another child.

characters

main characters

Thomasine

Thomasine is 12 years old and has been living with her father in her grandmother's house for several months. She knows her way around this house very well as she has spent a lot of time there before. She is a very careful and mature child for her age. For example, she helps her father with the dishes and is the only one who keeps him company in her great-great-aunt's room.

Minor characters

Henriette / Hetty

Henriette is Thomasine's great-great-aunt and used to be a well-known actress. Now she is very old and just lies in her bed in the attic of the house. In the Spiegelhaus the children meet Hetty, who is Henriette in earlier times. At the beginning she is described as a little girl around Signe's age, towards the end as a “young woman with elegant clothes” and “so beautiful that [Thomasine] almost started crying again” (p. 109).

Wilma

Wilma is Thomasine's cousin and the only one she calls Tommy. She is 14 years old and reads a lot, especially fantasy novels. She also spends a lot of time putting on make-up because she thinks she is “fat and ugly” (p. 29), and she also wears glasses with thick lenses because she is very nearsighted. However, after her transformation, "[she] exuded calm and confidence" (p. 75).

Signe

Signe is Wilma's five year old sister. Before she enters the Spiegelhaus, she has “serious gray eyes” (p. 8) and rarely speaks because she “just doesn't feel like talking” (p. 8). Then it is as if “something has finally been switched correctly in Signe” (p. 21) and she looks lively and cheerful, like a completely normal girl.

Erland

Erland is seven years old, but he "moves and talks like a little adult" (p. 10). Thomasine thinks he's "mean and stupid" (p. 12) and Erland actually thinks up all sorts of meanness. For example, he calls his cousin “Thomasine puke machine” (p. 11). After he was in the mirror house he is “small and thin” (p. 104) and “everything that was dark in him was gone” (p. 105).

Thomas

Thomas, Thomasine's father, is always shrouded in sadness. He is a writer, but after the death of his son about five years ago he did not write anything and moved further and further away from Thomasine's mother. His silent crying is characteristic: "Nothing can be heard, but you can see on his back that he is crying."

Daniel

Daniel is Thomasine's uncle and the single father of Signe and Erland. He is humorless, always speaks with a mocking tone and is only fixated on the inheritance. He largely ignores Thomasine, but she doesn't care, because she finds him “pretty boring anyway” (p. 9). It seems particularly ridiculous to her that he always wants to be addressed as Uncle Daniel, even though he is only a little older than Thomas. Thomasine later came to the realization that only “sorrow and loneliness” (p. 99) made him this person.

Kajsa

Kajsa is Thomasine's aunt and, together with her husband Kjell, runs an advertising company. She is almost always in a bad mood and often argues with her daughter Wilma. The relationship between the parents and their daughter remains disturbed years later, which is why Wilma prefers to spend time with her cousins ​​than with Kajsa and Kjell.

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