"The Sisters" is 600 pages. But you'll fly through it
I promise.
The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri is not for the weak. It’s a 600+ page novel that spans decades and rotates through various points of view. But do NOT let the page count scare you. The moment I cracked it open, I knew I was hooked.
At the end of last year, I asked my most well-read friends for a single book recommendation. What is the one book you’d tell someone to read right now? I’ve been making my way through the list, (which you can find here) and decided to start my year with the ambitious entry suggested by Hunter Harris.
The multi-generational metafictional family saga follows the eclectic Mikkola sisters: Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia, as their lives intertwine with that of their childhood friend, Jonas (yes, like the author, and the similarities don’t stop there). Well, rather, how his life intertwines with theirs. They meet as children and as he grows older, he remains possessed by them. They forget who he is.
The Tunisian Swedish Mikkola family is shrouded in mystery. The sisters are plagued by an intergenerational curse that Jonas (also Tunisian and Swedish) is set on solving. Jonas suffers from intergenerational trauma of his own, of course, that we get glimpses of when the narrative shifts to him.
What Khemiri does with structure here is ambitious and exciting. He plays with time in a way that feels fresh. The book starts in 1999 and ends in 2035, and is divided into seven sections, each covering a period of time shorter than the last (the first covers a year, the last, a minute). Despite its breadth, the story is propulsive. I felt like I was growing up alongside the characters and was devastated when it was over.
For fans of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.
Before I get into what I read last month, I wanted to give a quick shout for Tasbeeh Herwees’ reporting on what’s going on over at the Los Angeles Review of Books (in short: a total shitshow).
What I read in January:
🐑 Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash:
This novel delights and surprises. About the dysfunctional Flynn family in an unnamed coastal town, Lost Lambs is a welcome departure from the onslaught of contemporary downtown autofiction that’s been taking the publishing world by storm. Charged with conspiracy and chaos, Lost Lambs is funny. Really funny. Funny enough to forgive the trite marriage woes between Catherine and Bud and the intentional misspellings that are littered throughout the first half.
💰 A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar:
This novel is bleak and unsubtle in its messaging over morality. Set in the near future, where an environmental crisis has wreaked havoc on India, A Guardian and a Thief follows a mother who is thisclose to joining her climate scientist husband in Michigan. All she has to do is secure the visas for herself, her father, and her daughter. When a thief swipes her purse containing the passports, their stories — and desperation — become intertwined. The ending, truthfully, made me feel sick, but I couldn’t look away.
🕵️♀️ My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney:
Alice Feeney is one crazy motherfucker. The thing about her is that she has never met an insane twist she doesn’t like. In her latest, Eden Fox returns home from a run only to discover an imposter wife in her place. Her husband is in on it, and insists that the real Eden is a stalker who has lost her mind. By the way, she and her husband live in a famous cliffside manse called Spyglass — and the story behind the house, and how they got it, is a whole other can of worms. There’s also a company that predicts a customer’s death date, and that is relevant to all of this. And everything goes off the rails about halfway through. In the words of goodreads user Laura Lovesreading, “Alice whatever you’re smoking I want some girlypop!”
🎭 Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor:
Pick this up for your spring break or summer vacation. Coming out April 7, Cantor’s debut novel follows a TV writer circling the drain for ideas when she comes across her therapist husband’s patient files. A casual pitch lifted from his session notes gets fast tracked for development, leaving Caroline in a lurch that she has no choice but to write her way out of.
✈️ The Girls Trip by Ally Condie:
Also out April 7, Ally Condie’s latest follows a trio who got the trip out of the group chat. Hope, Ash, and Caro are internet friends who met during a COVID-era virtual book club and decide to meet up in real life, off the grid, at Eden National Park. But tragedy strikes during their camping trip, and honestly, I barely remember what happens but I know that it was messy and I know that the ending fizzled out.
ty for the shout out queen