Jonas Hassen Khemiri - The Sisters (Sceptre, 2025) **

One more of this praised novels. I read more than 200 of the 638 pages, and in retrospect I admire my persistency to have read that far into the novel. It describes the lives of three sisters, seen from the perspective of the narrator, a young man who is infatuated with one of the sisters. 

The sisters have three different characters yet none of them really exceptional. The story itself is bland, without suspense and without any literary merit. All characters share the same multicultural background, and that was the main reason why I gave it a try, yet also that aspect remains relatively shallow in its possible developments. 

Maybe if the story and the writing had been a lot tighter (reducing with 400 pages?), there might have been some value in the novel. 

Again, my own personal and very subjective appreciation.