The Sisters: A Novel

"[The Sisters] generates every kind of heat . . . If you welcome this novel into your mind, it will warm and transform you." ―Tess Gunty, National Book Award–winning author of The Rabbit Hutch

“Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the very rare combination of a deep intellectual and a true storyteller, as smart as he is entertaining.” ―Fredrik Backman, New York Times–bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People

"Astonishing . . . Every character―every sentence―is startlingly, indubitably alive.” ―Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies

"Captivating and so full of life―one of those books you live inside and miss when it’s over." ―Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost and The Parisian

An addictively entertaining, internationally bestselling family saga by a National Book Award finalist.

Meet the Mikkola sisters: Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia. Their mother is a Tunisian carpet seller, their father a mysterious Swede who left them when they were young. Ina is tall, serious, a compulsive organizer. Evelyn is dreamy, magnetic, a smooth talker. And Anastasia is moody, chaotic, a shape-shifting presence, quick to anger.

Ina meets her future husband when she’s dragged to a New Year’s rave by her sisters, only to suffer the ultimate betrayal. Evelyn drifts through life before embarking on a wild career as an actress. And Anastasia runs off to Tunisia, where she falls in love with a woman who, years later, will transform her life.

Following the sisters from afar is Jonas, the son of a Swedish mother and a Tunisian father. Over the course of three decades, his life intersects with the sisters, from a chance encounter in Tunis to the scene of a fighter jet crash in Stockholm. When Evelyn disappears on a trip to New York, Jonas manages to track her down―and helps her to break the curse that has been looming over the Mikkolas for decades. In the process, a shocking revelation changes everything about who they think they are.

Narrated in six parts, each spanning a period ranging from a year to a day to a single minute, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's The Sisters is a big, vivid family saga of the highest order―an addictively entertaining tour de force.