Alexandra Kowalska

Alexandra Kowalska is Åke’s new partner and a turning point in Jeanette Kihlberg’s understanding of their separation. The novel gives little access to Alexandra’s private life; instead, it presents her through brief encounters and through Jeanette’s increasingly solitary perspective. A wave from a doorway, a lift home, and the word “Restorer” on a business card become the sparse details from which Jeanette must reckon with a changed marriage.

Introduction and limited perspective

Alexandra enters the story not through an account of her background but at Jeanette’s home, where she is already familiar enough with Åke to leave him smiling in the hall. Her profession appears later on her business card: restorer. The text does not elaborate on her work or provide an independent account of her character. What it does show is how the meaning of her presence accumulates for Jeanette: first as a discovery, then as the person with whom Åke says he is in love, and finally as the woman with whom he has moved in.

That restricted presentation matters. Alexandra is visible at the point where Jeanette’s domestic life is being rearranged, but the narrative does not turn her into a fully explained rival. The reader encounters her largely as Jeanette does: through what she sees, what Åke admits, and what she can infer from an object as small as a business card. The limits of this evidence leave Alexandra’s motives and feelings unstated.

The encounter at Jeanette’s home

Jeanette reaches the house as the quiet around her is interrupted by neighbours and the sounds of a football pitch. At the door, the handle is pushed down from inside; Jeanette has to jump aside to avoid being struck. Alexandra is in the doorway, facing away from Jeanette and waving to Åke in the hall. She calls out, “So long, handsome.” Åke smiles back until he sees Jeanette, and his smile disappears. Alexandra turns, greets her with a breezy “Oh, hi,” and explains that she is leaving.

The staging gives Jeanette a sudden, visible encounter with a closeness she had not yet been told about. Alexandra’s farewell is directed toward Åke; his changed expression registers the disruption caused by Jeanette’s arrival. Alexandra’s light greeting does not resolve the awkwardness or explain what has happened. Instead, the scene leaves Jeanette to ask Åke directly what the relationship is.

Åke first describes a night out at Operakällaren, where there were quite a few drinks. He then says he spent the night in the city and that Alexandra gave him a lift home. When Jeanette asks whether he is sleeping with her, he looks away, hides his face in his hands, and eventually says, “I think I’m in love with her …” The progression from the night out to the admission makes Alexandra’s significance unmistakable: she is not merely someone who happened to drive Åke home but the person he says he loves. Jeanette leaves without continuing the conversation and calls Sofia Zetterlund from her car.

Relationship to Åke and consequences for Jeanette

The relationship changes Jeanette’s sense of what their separation means. Later, while thinking about Johan and her estrangement from Åke, she understands that Åke has moved in with his new partner, Alexandra. The news sharpens her uncertainty about her own future: she does not know whether the separation will become permanent, or whether the lonely vigil at Johan’s side is a preview of what lies ahead.

Jeanette’s response to Alexandra’s profession turns on the word printed on the card. She reads “Restorer” and thinks of someone trying to breathe fresh life into something dead. The thought is directed at Alexandra’s occupation, but its force comes from Jeanette’s marriage: restoration becomes an image for the possibility of reviving a relationship that may already be over. Jeanette does not conclude that Åke has moved out for good. She considers that it might be better if he had, and recognizes that he has taken the first step while the next one may be hers to give.

Alexandra therefore marks a real change without supplying a settled ending. Åke’s declaration of love and his move into a new home make the separation concrete, yet Jeanette remains unsure what she wants the separation to become. Alexandra’s role in the novel is defined by that contrast: her presence makes Åke’s choice visible, while Jeanette’s thoughts expose the unresolved question left behind—whether anything in her own life, or in the marriage, can still be restored.