Jonas Hassen Khemiri on 'The Sisters': A Saga of Curses, Characters, and Time

The Curse of 'The Sisters'

• 📚 Jonas Hassen Khemiri discusses his new book, "The Sisters," which follows three sisters attempting to break a curse: "Everything you love, you will lose."
• 💡 The author explores the fascination with curses and superstitions, noting how beliefs can influence lives even if not fully accepted.
• ⏳ The sisters' struggle with the curse highlights the difficulty of forming attachments when there's a fear of inevitable loss.

Character-Driven Narrative

• ✍️ Khemiri emphasizes that characters are his primary inspiration, stating that their voices and internal chatter drive his writing.
• 🚀 He has learned to allow characters freedom, realizing that when they "take over the story," it's a sign of a successful narrative.
• 🎭 The author views writing as a way to "control and befriend people who you wouldn't meet otherwise."

Blending Fiction and Reality

• 🔄 "The Sisters" uniquely blends fictional narratives with personal memories and non-fiction elements.
• 🧩 Khemiri aimed to explore the blurring boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, making sense of his own experiences through writing.
• 🌍 The novel incorporates various settings, including Tunis, Stockholm, and New York, reflecting places that have personally impacted the author.

The Perception of Time

• 📈 The book is structured to accelerate the passage of time, mirroring the author's feeling that time itself speeds up as one gets older.
• ⏳ Sections progress from a year to months, then weeks, days, and finally minutes, to capture this subjective experience of time.
• 🏙️ The journey culminates in New York, a place the sisters (and Khemiri) projected many dreams onto, serving as a tipping point for understanding the curse's reality.