At 656 pages and 137 chapters, this is a long book.  It got a lot of acclaim last year, and it is written by a Tunisian Swede. He is a professor of Creative Writing at NYU, having written other books in Swedish, but this is his first in English, and you can tell by his sentence structure that English is not his first language.  I think some sentences went on for pages.

I’ve read reviews of this when it is praised as “propulsive” and also those that condemn it as “doesn’t go anywhere,” and somehow both are mildly true. It definitely does sag in the middle, which makes is when I considered abandoning it, but it gains steam and speeds up during the last third. While some call it a “slog,” and others call it “their new favorite book,” neither was true for me.

This is a novel about second-generation Tunisian immigrants living in Sweden, and their challenges of cultural duality, where they do not fit in, either in their country of ethnic origin, nor in their resident birth country. This feeling is all too common today, and it was interesting to walk in those shoes for a while. I find it is hard enough to feel like you fit in within your own culture, so empathize with those that have to bridge between two, with no solid ground beneath them in the middle. Most of this story takes place in Sweden, while some of it travels to Tunisia, Europe, and New York City.

The book spans from New Year’s Eve 2000 to post pandemic, and alternates short chapters between Jonas (the author) and the three sisters he is obsessed with and curious about. In this hunk of time you see their story arc, with slight intersections, while nothing that remarkable happens– only life, with its bumps and detours. I too am one of three sisters, which is what drew me to this book to begin with, and I do find that configuration to have a certain dynamic about it, so it was also interesting to see how that dynamic was depicted here.

I’d give this book four stars, and I’m glad I persevered and finished it. However, having done so, I can say that this is an undertaking that may not be worth the time for you, regardless of some other people’s rave accolades.