For a debut novel, the title is not exactly enticing. Apart from the fact that “The girl…” format has been done to death, it sounds rather mundane, to put it mildly.
From that point of view, a superficial reading of the text suggests that the author has been brutally honest, because almost nothing happens. The plot, if that is not stretching the word beyond its capabilities, is as follows. A girl – we never discover her name – appears at the tram stop every morning at 08:11, where she waits for the B12 to arrive at 08:18. She stands there while people enter or exit the tram but does not get on it herself. When someone speaks to her, she answers them, but never initiates the conversation herself.
Thus, on the surface, this would seem to be nothing more or less than an example of performance art presented as literature. However, there is much more to it than that because Johnson has introduced elements of randomisation, thereby rendering this volume as several stories in one.