Mia Pettersson

Mia Pettersson is the woman Sofia Zetterlund discovers in Lars Magnus Pettersson’s private life, turning a suspicious telephone number into a visible rival and family household. Although Mia is shown only through Sofia’s search and observations, those brief encounters overturn Sofia’s understanding of her relationship with Lars.

Identity and Introduction

Sofia traces an unfamiliar number from Lars’s phone to Mia, listed at Pålnäsvägen in Saltsjöbaden. The directory also lists Pettersson’s Flowers in Fisksätra beneath the address, giving Sofia a second lead. At the shop, she initially finds only a young employee; as she hesitates and turns to leave, a brunette woman in her fifties comes through the back door. A badge identifies her as Mia. She is nearly Sofia’s height, with large dark eyes, and the young employee is strikingly like her. Sofia recognizes them as mother and daughter.

Connection to Lars Magnus Pettersson

The shop encounter makes the name on the directory listing a person, but Sofia’s conclusions gather force afterward. She believes Mia has been making love to Lars throughout their relationship and imagines that the young woman is his daughter—the child he had not wanted with Sofia. A Lou Reed album Lars played for Sofia in a hotel bar in New York City becomes, in her reconstruction, evidence of another shared life: she imagines it belongs to his record collection in Saltsjöbaden and that he listened to it with Mia. These are Sofia’s inferences, not an account of Mia explaining her relationship with Lars.

The Household in Saltsjöbaden

Sofia later parks a hundred metres from a large yellow villa and watches through its picture window. Lars enters the living room carrying champagne and calling into the house. Mia follows with a tray of glasses; a daughter and a young man who looks like Lars come in from another room. The gathering confirms for Sofia that Lars has a household and children she had not known about. She wonders whether the young man is another child of his, but the scene does not establish his identity or parentage.

Narrative Significance

Mia has no direct speech or independent viewpoint in these encounters. Her significance lies in how Sofia comes to see her: first as a name attached to a phone number, then as the mother at the flower shop, and finally as the woman sharing Lars’s home. The movement from directory entry to observed family gathering makes Sofia’s discovery concrete. It also turns her suspicion into a decision: she resolves to end the relationship and to regard Lars as dead to her.