Jonas Hassen Khemiri, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker and other outlets, is the author of six novels, seven plays and numerous essays and short stories. A finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and winner of an Obie Award, Khemiri\u00a0has just published his latest novel,\u00a0\u201cThe Sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q. Please tell readers about your new book.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sisters\u201d started when someone I loved put a curse on me. I didn\u2019t believe in curses. A curse is just a story, right? But stories are powerful, especially the ones that try to predict our future. Many years later, after living in the shadow of that curse, I realized I needed to write a novel about three sisters trying to escape a family curse.<\/p>\n
The sisters\u2019 curse is this: Everything they love, they will lose.<\/p>\n
It sounds like a horrible curse, until you realize it\u2019s actually just the curse of time. And in that sense, we\u2019re all cursed. We follow these sisters over the course of 35 years as they fall in and out of love, move and move again, learn new languages and forget old ones, try drugs, steal things, betray and forgive each other. It\u2019s my most personal novel yet, because every other chapter started with a personal memory.<\/p>\n
SEE ALSO<\/strong>:\u00a0Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more<\/a><\/p>\n Q. \u201cThe Sisters\u201d is your first book written in English, is that correct? What was that experience like?<\/b><\/p>\n It felt like liberation.<\/p>\n I grew up speaking Swedish. My parents spoke French. My favorite rappers and actors spoke English. And for some strange reason, these sisters started speaking to me in English. My first impulse was to tell them off, to convince them I\u2019m a Swedish writer and that they had to switch languages. But then I stopped myself. I thought about all the times I\u2019ve strangled creative projects by trying to control them too early.<\/p>\n So I told the sisters: \u201cFine. I\u2019ll give you one chapter in English. Two. Five. Ten.\u201d Before I knew it, I\u2019d written 600+ pages in English. I made a pact with myself to never look up a word. Just keep going.<\/p>\n Then I wrote the book again in Swedish. Then I rewrote it a third time in English. The running joke with my kids is that I\u2019ll spend the rest of my life rewriting it in languages I don\u2019t even speak.<\/p>\n Looking back, I think I needed English more than the sisters did, because writing in a language that\u2019s not your mother tongue makes it impossible to be perfect. And perfectionism is the killer of creativity. I think the distance the English offered made it more OK for me to write about certain personal losses that I have tried and failed to write in my mother tongue for many years. For some reason it was easier in English. Maybe because the language was borrowed, I felt less exposed, like I was wearing a mask that let me speak more honestly.<\/p>\n Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?<\/b><\/p>\n Here are the ones I\u2019ve probably gifted most often in the last couple of years:<\/p>\n \u201cMilk Blood Heat\u201d<\/a> by Dantiel Moniz<\/p>\n \u201cA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u201d<\/a> by George Saunders<\/p>\n \u201cThe Collected Stories\u201d by Amy Hempel<\/p>\n \u201cThe Brothers Lionheart\u201d by Astrid Lindgren<\/p>\n Q. What are you reading now?<\/b><\/p>\n The Bible. Heard about it?<\/p>\n Q. How do you decide what to read next?<\/b><\/p>\n Total randomness. Sometimes a friend recommends something. Sometimes it\u2019s a name I see in an interview. I just read the beautiful \u201cThe Book Of Records\u201d by Madeleine Thien, who was in my cohort at the Cullman Center, and during a talk she said she was inspired by Y\u014dko Ogawa\u2019s \u201cThe Memory Police,\u201d so now that\u2019s on my list. Books lead to other books. It\u2019s a long, beautiful chain reaction.<\/p>\n Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?<\/b><\/p>\n Yes. It was a tiny children\u2019s book titled \u201cDun till lillans t\u00e4cke\u201d (\u201cDown for Little Sister\u2019s Quilt\u201d). The story follows a boy who\u2019s just become a big brother, and he\u2019s sent out into the world to gather feathers for his baby sister\u2019s blanket. He goes from bird to bird, politely asking for a feather, and each time he\u2019s turned down. I couldn\u2019t understand why the birds kept denying him and every time my mom read it to me, I kept wishing the birds would be kinder this time around. I had just become an older brother myself, so I guess I could relate to the responsibility of the main character.<\/p>\n Q. Is there a book you\u2019re nervous to read?<\/b><\/p>\n There\u2019s a novel by Per Olov Enquist (R.I.P.) called \u201cNedst\u00f6rtad \u00e4ngel\u201d (\u201cDownfall\u201d) about 100 pages of pure brilliance.\u00a0It\u2019s structured in three parts, each exploring different facets of love and monstrosity. Enquist once claimed he didn\u2019t even remember writing it.\u00a0I sometimes wonder if this book gave me writer\u2019s block in my late twenties. I\u2019m grateful it exists, but I\u2019m afraid to return to it. Perfect books can be paralyzing. These days, I prefer novels that are messy, overambitious, and too full of life.<\/p>\n Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn\u2019t)?<\/b><\/p>\n When I first met Momo, the main character in \u201cLife Before Us\u201d by Emile Ajar, I thought: \u201cIf this person exists, there must be other people like us out there.\u201d The book single-handedly reduced my existential loneliness by at least 25%. Same thing with \u201cPnin\u201d by Vladimir Nabokov, \u201c10:30 on a Summer Night\u201d by Marguerite Duras, or \u201cGiovanni\u2019s Room\u201d by James Baldwin. I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m aiming for as a writer\u2014that my readers will meet my characters and feel some version of: \u201cI\u2019m still utterly alone in this world, but maybe, thanks to this book, that loneliness feels a bit more survivable.\u201d Especially in these turbulent times, when strong forces seem to insist that separation is better than connection, and the only way forward is backward, I wanted to write a novel that says the opposite.<\/p>\n Q. What\u2019s something \u2013 a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else \u2013 that has stayed with you from a recent reading?<\/b><\/p>\n These lines from Joseph Brodsky\u2019s poem \u201cA Song,\u201d, have echoed in my mind recently:<\/p>\n I wish you were here, dear,I wish you were here.I wish I knew no astronomywhen stars appear\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n