Smile Like an Angel

Katarina Widholm

A deeply moving novel about childhood wounds, resilience, and the search for peace

In the late 1960s, Mikael grows up in a home defined by silence and violence. His father drinks more with each passing year, his mother clings to appearances—and when a dramatic event changes everything, the blame is placed on Mikael.

Decades later, Mikael lives a withdrawn and solitary life, observing rather than participating. He collects fragments of memory, trying to piece together a past that never fully made sense. When his sister asks him to shelter a woman and her small child, disrupting the neat confinement of his routines, something begins to shift for Mikael. So, when the family gathers, long-standing patterns begin to unravel, and the truth that has been buried for years slowly comes to light.

Smile Like an Angel is a tightly woven psychological novel about the wounds of childhood, the stories families tell to survive, and how a single imposed role can shape an entire life. Following the immense success of the beloved ‘Betty’ series, which has sold over 1 million copies, Katarina Widholm reveals a striking new dimension of her authorship—darker, more introspective, and deeply compelling.