THE SISTERS by Jonas Hassen Khemiri

4 stars (4 stars instead of 5 only because of the length!)

This eloquent, beautifully written wonderful (though super long at 650 pages) novel centers around the three Mikkola sisters and their childhood friend Jonas, all Swedish Tunisian, following them across five decades into adulthood. They’re all searching for life purpose and happiness, but all the sisters feel doomed by a curse their Mom that they would lose everything they love.

Anatasia, the youngest sister is the always up for fun and craziness sister, until she devolves into drug addiction and runs off with a fellow artist in Tunisia. She eventually returns to pursue a successful career advertising. Evelyn, the middle sister, is the alluring beauty who eventually makes her way into acting.  Ina the eldest is the responsible one, looking out for her sisters in ways their single Mom fails to do, grows up to be a married Mom. Ina Their mom, a mostly impoverished Tunisian carpet seller, was abandoned by her Swedish husband, leaving her to raise the girls herself in Switzerland. The book paces up pace in the end, with its seven chapters all speeding up and jumping forward in time, with the first covering a year, then six months, then three months down to the last chapter only focused on a minute.

Jonas is the narrator, sharing acute observations and rumors about the sisters having grown up next door to them, but his connection to them remains. Jonas captures in his narrative all the push and pull of living between two cultures and standing out as different from their mostly blond hair, blue eyed Swedish cohorts. Jonas, who grows up to be a writer, sustains a life-long crush on Evelyn and that keeps his constantly keeping up with the sisters.

The dramatic twists and turns of the sister’s lives, the puzzlement of how exactly Jonas is entangled with them, the intense cultural tugs of being raised multicultural, all converge to create an epic novel.

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as well as NetGalley, for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.