Nine Perfect Strangers

The theme of healing and transformation is explicit throughout the novel. Masha promises her guests that their stay at Tranquillum House will transform them. She believes that they’ll be entirely different people by the time they leave. The implication of her promises is that this transformation will be an improvement, that the treatment she offers will help her broken and miserable guests heal and transform into happier, more functional people. She’s carefully chosen the guests because they’re all uniquely unhappy. Despite the differences between them and the various ways in which their depression or dissatisfaction has manifested, Masha offers them all the same treatment: a combination of various techniques, diets, and counselling sessions. In response to her promise, the guests vary from devoted to cynical. While people like Carmel and Yao are desperate for Masha to be right, others like Heather are suspicious about what Masha promises. Healing and transformation can mean different things to different people, but Masha wants to provide a universal solution to the world’s problems. She wants to heal, she wants to transform, and she wants to receive the credit for improving the world in ways that other people couldn’t.