The Sisters
A Novel
by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
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Pub Date Jun 17 2025 | Archive Date Jul 17 2025
Description
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.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
★ "Wondrous . . . Blending humor and pathos, Khemiri perfectly encapsulates the push and pull of living in two different and sometimes dueling cultures. It’s a staggering achievement." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Sisters is a thoroughly fascinating story about sibling rivalry, loyalty, and love, one that is about the microcosm of the family as much as it is about the bigger world. Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the very rare combination of a deep intellectual and a true storyteller, as smart as he is entertaining. He is an important voice, a curious mind, and a generous teacher to all of us who have tried to imitate him.” —Fredrik Backman, New York Times–bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People
"The Sisters is a novel of unsurpassed tenderness. It is about the power of stories, to make and break and finally heal us. Jonas Hassen Khemiri is a born storyteller, of rare and astonishing gifts. Every character—every sentence—is startlingly, indubitably alive.” —Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
"A quilt in the winter, a fireplace of embers, a singing kettle, a blazing forest, a steaming bath, a controlled burn—what you hold in your hands generates every kind of heat. There is violence, and some of it burns, but its most consistent and miraculous energy—the energy radiating beneath every sentence of every page—is a kind of geothermal tenderness. Jonas Hassen Khemiri's The Sisters moves generation to generation, neighbor to neighbor, skin to skin, pulse to pulse. 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
“The Sisters is a moving appraisal of family, language, and the spiritual developments that accrue over a life. Jonas Hassen Khemiri ushers you through those developments with humanity and wit and illuminates complex familial intimacies with utter clarity.” —Raven Leilani, author of Luster
"The Sisters is Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s masterpiece, a beautiful double helix of memory and imagination. Folding together Stockholm and New York, time and timelessness, self and other, it is an immersive, wondrous reading experience. Life overflows its pages." —Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing
"The Sisters is a superb novel about the pangs and longings of sibling love, about being Arab in Sweden and Swedish in Tunisia, about the strange stories that sustain us and the long rush of time. 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
"The Sisters is an extraordinary achievement, at once ambitious and personal, straddling the line between reality and fiction, investigating language itself. The Mikkola sisters are an indelible creation, and Jonas Hassen Khemiri is an ingenious guide through the complex saga of their lives. His trickster charm is matched by his keen insight into human nature. This is the novel that I didn't know I was waiting for." —Adam Dalva, critic and editor at The Yale Review and Words Without Borders
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374618896 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 656 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Brandi S, Reviewer
Initially, I thought “Woah, 700 pages?” but when I was about a chapter in, I was absolutely hooked. I love a book with a lot of drama, especially sister drama. This book is very deep, where there are a lot of layers. Although long, this book was excellent.
Erika V, Reviewer
The Sisters follows the lives of Ina, Evelyn and Anastasia Mikkola; their Swedish father has died, and their Tunisian mother is convinced a curse has been placed upon the family: anything they love too much will lead to its loss.
Ina, the eldest, is hyper-organised, having stepped into a parenting role from an early age due to the Mikkola sisters' mercurial mother. Evelyn is beautiful and charismatic, drifting along the current of life until an inspiring change of events occurs. Anastasia, the youngest, teems with force, but struggles to channel her energy into constructive choices.
From afar, Jonas- also Swedish-Tunisian- recounts the lives of the sisters and his own from childhood onward, as they intersect throughout the novel.
The novel is divided into 7 parts, each shorter than the other; Khemiri's storytelling is wonderful, engaging, both funny and heartbreaking, and to the point. The novel strikes a balance between being both character- and plot-driven. It can be read as a snapshot of the experience of being mixed race in Sweden, racism, class and Swedish culture, but is also a meditation on the complexity of family, belonging, stories (we tell oursleves), time and life.
I ADORE this book! I laughed out loud and cried, and rolled my eyes, and there were observations I related to so much it felt like someone had plucked them from my brain. I also really enjoyed the meta aspects of the story, and such a huge theme of the book is projection.
Reading this felt like diving into a properly told story and it was so, so enjoyable! I really recommend this for everyone!
Sisters is out on June 16th in the US!
Thank you very, very much to @fsgbooks and @netgalley for an advance copy of this wonderful novel!
Despina K, Reviewer
4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced copy.
When I first heard this was a family saga that spans decades, plays with structure and time, and explores themes of identity, belonging, and legacy, I was immediately in. Also, I have to mention, I find it fascinating that Khemiri wrote this in English, translated it into Swedish himself, and then revised the English version again. The language and style have the feel of a translation in the best possible way, they really pull you in.
This is not a “summer read” in the usual sense, but it is a perfect book to settle into over the summer. Long, layered, and absorbing, with short chapters that keep the pace moving.
I love character-driven stories, especially when we get to follow people over a long stretch of time and grow with them. The Sisters gives us just that. The story focuses on three Tunisian-Swedish sisters and a narrator named Jonas, and takes place across Sweden, Tunisia, Germany, and the U.S. It covers a lot - family, cultural identity, belonging and how past legacies shape future choices.
As a first-gen American, I found so much here that resonated: the push and pull between cultures, language, family expectations, and the desire to build something new. While the cast is large and not every thread is tied up, that sprawling quality made it feel all the more real to me.
There were a few times early on when I wasn’t sure where we were going or if certain moments would circle back—but before long, I was fully invested. By the second half, I didn’t want to put it down.
This is a big, ambitious novel with so much heart. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time and highly recommend it.
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