The Family Clause

From acclaimed Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri comes a novel about a family on the verge of collapse.

A grandfather who lives abroad returns home to Sweden to visit his adult children. His son is a failure. His daughter is having a baby with the wrong man. Only the grandfather himself is perfect — in his own eyes, at least.

Over the course of ten intense days, relationships unfold and painful memories resurface. The grandfather confronts his past. The daughter faces an impossible choice. The son tries to write himself free. Something has to give. According to a long-standing family agreement, the grandfather has maintained his Swedish citizenship by coming to stay with his son in Stockholm every six months. Can this clause be negotiated, or will it chain the family to its past forever?

Through a series of quickly changing perspectives, Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Family Clause intimately portrays a chaotic and perfectly normal family, one deeply wounded by the death of a child and the disappearance of a father.