Body Double

A surreal thriller that blurs the lines between lies and truth, between the selves we conceal and the faces we show the world. As winter descends and the city fills with the scent of woodsmoke, a young transcriber follows the same routine each day. She collects tapes from a ghostwriter's office, stops for an espresso and croissant, and returns home to type out the voices of strangers - stories that will become someone else's novels. Her solitary life is predictable, unremarkable ... until the day she hears something different on the tapes- a message meant only for her. Across the city, two women, Laura and Naomi, accidentally swap coats at a department store cafe. This brief encounter sparks something electric and strange, and soon, Laura has moved in with Naomi. As the days pass, she begins to mirror her more and more closely - her gestures, her habits, her very essence. Slowly, deliberately, Laura starts to take over Naomi's life. Meanwhile, the transcriber makes a disturbing discovery- she is beginning to disappear ... 'Closer to Ingmar Bergman's Persona than it is to, say, Single White Female, this is a disconcerting doppelganger novel that splinters into a dual tale of betrayal and uncertainty in romance and in literary art.' -Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald 'Entrancing and eerie, Body Double pulses with atmosphere. Fans of filmmakers like Krzysztof Kieslowski (the 'Three Colours' trilogy) may recognise something like his films here. The gorgeously noirish narrative even makes reference to a lipstick, Veronique - a possible reference to Kieslowski's 1991 film The Double Life of Veronique ... Johansson's metaphysical thriller makes you question the limits of personhood and individuality. As she ratchets up the creepiness, you can't look away.' -Declan Fry, ABC News 'Johansson's debut novel, Antiquity, was a slow burn, sensual, and troubling. Her follow-up - a thriller about two young women who spark up a suffocating romance after one accidentally takes the other's coat in a cafe - sounds a little like Single White Female, a little like Vertigo, and exactly like the queer doppelg nger story I've been dying to read.' -Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture