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Book Cover for: The Sisters, Jonas Hassen Khemiri

The Sisters

Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Reader Score

83%

83% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 5 reviews on

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A New York Times Summer Book We're Looking Forward To
One of Vulture's Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer

"One of this summer's most buzzed-about novels." --Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times

"A classic story about sibling rivalry . . . One of the best novels I've ever read about the complexities of mixed heritage." --Fredrik Backman, The New Yorker

"[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

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

An addictively entertaining 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.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • Publish Date: Jun 17th, 2025
  • Pages: 656
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.10in - 2.10in - 1.80lb
  • EAN: 9780374618896
  • Categories: LiteraryFamily Life - SiblingsSagas

About the Author

Khemiri, Jonas Hassen: -

Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of six novels, seven plays, and a collection of short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages. The Family Clause was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and received the Prix Médicis Étranger in France. Khemiri has been a finalist for Sweden's most prestigious literary prize three times, winning it once. His play Invasion! earned an Obie Award for Best Script.
A recipient of the Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, Khemiri's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and numerous other publications. His novel, The Sisters, is his first book written in English. Khemiri lives in Brooklyn with his family and teaches creative writing at NYU.

Critics’ reviews