Amanda Svensson - A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding (Scribe, 2023) ***½

This was for me a great novel to read during the holidays. With its more than 500 pages, and its interesting  and carefully developing plot, it pushes the reader to keep reading out of curiosity and sympathy with the lead characters. The novel balances the stories of adult triplets, who all three have different lives and personalities. Sebastian works as a cognitive scientist in a mysterious research lab in London. Clara has left Europe for Easter Island to report on a group of people (a cult?) who prepare the end of the world as a result of global warming, and Matilda lives in Berlin and is in a relationship with a stepson.

The relationship between the three siblings is far from ideal, they have grown apart, but the disappearance of their father forces them to connect again. More and older family secrets become known as they dig deeper. I will not disclose them to avoid spoiling the fun of reading. 

Svensson's novel is well balanced, with bizarre happenings at time, exotic issues that arise, and a plot development that makes you want to keep reading. 

On the back cover we read: "A joyful family saga about free will, forgiveness, and how we are all interconnected". I wonder whether the publishing company actually read the book because it is anything but this description. It is dark, dealing with issues such as depression, alienation, dysfunction, ethically questionable research, the feeling of doom that will end our world, or at least humanity. It is written in an easy-to-read way, but that does not make it less dark.