The Sisters: A Novel

"One gawps . . . at its breadth and ambition. [The Sisters is] a transnational tour de force." ―Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review

"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.