The Sisters

Ina and Hector attend a lecture by Edward Said at the Workers’ Educational Association in Stockholm. They find that the event has been unexpectedly mobbed by a diverse crowd of young fans, overwhelming the usual older attendees and filling the small venue. Ina, a devoted reader of Said, is deeply disappointed and wants to leave. Hector, who has a more academic interest in Said’s work, convinces her to stay. As they wait, Ina reflects on her deep connection to Said, viewing him as an intellectual father figure whose writings on displacement resonate with her own fragmented memories of Tunisia.

Anastasia arrives in Tunis to oppressive heat. Upon leaving the terminal, she finds that her promised ride from family isn’t at the airport. Disappointed, she prepares to take a taxi but is stopped by a man she recognizes: a former Stockholm subway driver who knew her mother (Jonas’s father). He explains that since her family lives far away, he offered to pick her up and is letting her stay in his city apartment rent-free. He drives her to the fifth-floor apartment, gives her the key, and provides brief instructions. Before leaving, he expresses his condolences for her mother’s death and tells Anastasia that she looks just like her. Alone in the new city, Anastasia feels overwhelmingly happy.

While waiting outside the full lecture hall, Hector points out Evelyn, seated inside with her boyfriend. Ina is frustrated, blaming their tardiness on Hector. After Hector’s attempt to get help from his professor, Lagerhjelm, fails, Ina wants to leave. Hector persuades her to stay, buoyed by his characteristic optimism, which Ina has come to share.

In Tunisia, Anastasia stands out at her school by being the only student who willingly sits in the oppressively hot sun during breaks. She does this because she feels like she’s losing her non-European appearance and misses being asked about her heritage; the sun is her way of connecting to it. 

The other students, including a girl named Latifah, mock Anastasia. Anastasia responds by blowing smoke in Latifah’s face. When Latifah becomes aggressive, Anastasia threatens her with a metal chair, causing Latifah to back down. Afterward, feeling an adrenaline rush, Anastasia resolves to continue her routine. She accepts that the other students think she’s “crazy” and compares this new school to her old ones in Sweden, concluding that she has always been at war and is prepared to fight if challenged.

At the Said lecture, the frustrated crowd outside the full venue begins chanting to demand a larger room. Professor Lagerhjelm eventually emerges and announces that the event will be moved to the much larger Z-hall. 

In the ensuing rush for seats, Ina and Hector secure spots in the fifth row, while Evelyn and her boyfriend, Simon, end up at the back. Said’s lecture is delivered at a rapid pace; Ina is filled with pride but only comprehends about half of it. Afterward, Hector introduces Ina to Lagerhjelm, but they don’t get to meet Said. 

Outside, Ina is irritated to find that Evelyn and Simon can articulately discuss the lecture’s themes. Her irritation turns to shock when she learns that the disheveled-looking Simon is a judicial clerk.

A few days later, a student named Daniela occupies Anastasia’s usual sunny spot in the school courtyard. Anastasia strikes up a conversation, and they quickly become friends. During a video call, Anastasia’s sisters tease her about her new friend, and Evelyn implies that Ina is pregnant. 

Anastasia and Daniela’s relationship soon becomes romantic, and they share their first kiss. After a man spies on them in a park, they begin spending time at Anastasia’s apartment. One evening after having sex, Anastasia confides in Daniela about the family curse and gives a detailed account of her mother’s death, including her initial suicide attempt and the fatal car crash that eventually killed her.

Jonas recounts two events. The first is from June 2003, when he launched his first book and later confronted a group of skinheads on the subway who were harassing a man. The skinheads later pushed him around, making him wish that people from his past were there to stand by and defend him.

The second is from the summer of 2004, when he traveled to Tunis to study Arabic and stayed in his estranged father’s apartment. Jonas recalls his father’s past disapproval of his retail job. His father picked him up from the airport, and during the tense, quiet drive, he complained about Tunisia. At the apartment, Jonas’s father mentioned that a previous tenant, one of the Mikkola sisters, had a friend who tampered with the electricity meter. He then invited Jonas to accompany him to his hometown in Jendouba.

Anastasia tells Daniela about her mother’s funeral. She recalls how the priest’s sermon felt generic and failed to capture her mother’s true character. Anastasia had planned to speak at the reception but found herself unable to when the moment came. Evelyn stepped in and delivered a moving improvised speech about their mother’s belief that energy can’t be destroyed, only transformed, a concept she linked to thermodynamics. The speech deeply resonated with the guests. 

Years later, Ina sent Anastasia a link to a radio program discussing the same idea, implying that Evelyn had plagiarized her speech. Anastasia preferred to believe that Evelyn had only done so by accident.

Jonas recalls driving from Tunis to Jendouba with his father. He tried to connect with his father by sharing his academic successes, but his father only corrected his French grammar. At one point, Jonas’s father got into a dangerous road-rage incident with a truck driver. 

When they stopped for beer, Jonas asked questions about the past, which were met with evasive answers. They arrived in the dusty town of Jendouba, which Jonas’s father declared he hated.

Toward the end of the language course, the power goes out in Anastasia’s apartment. Daniela, an engineering student, discovers and removes a device on the electricity meter that the landlord likely installed to save money, restoring the power. 

The incident sparks an argument when Anastasia tries to explain her family’s belief that they have a special, disruptive connection to electricity. Daniela dismisses this with scientific explanations; her rational, condescending tone offends Anastasia. They go to bed angry. Later that night, Anastasia hears Daniela get up and return to the fuse box. She then hears a buzz, followed by the sound of a body falling.

In Jendouba, Jonas watched his father deal with a tenant in a building he owned. The underwhelming reality of his family’s home contrasted with a fantasy that Jonas had of being welcomed by a large, loving extended family. He felt like an outsider as he met relatives who criticized him for not speaking Arabic. Jonas’s grandmother told him that if he learned the language, she would give him enough stories to fill up 10 books. 

That night, they received news that Radhi, Jonas’s uncle by marriage, had died in Tunis. Despite the family’s dislike for Radhi, his father and grandmother were deeply shaken. They returned to Tunis, where they bribed ambulance workers to covertly transport Radhi’s body back to Jendouba for burial.

For several days, Anastasia is alone and distraught in her Tunis apartment. Ever since the electrical accident, Daniela has refused to return her calls. Feeling responsible and tormented by the family curse, Anastasia passes the days before her flight home by sifting through the landlord’s abandoned possessions. She finds various objects that offer a temporary distraction from her guilt and loneliness.

Jonas attended Radhi’s funeral. He learned that Radhi’s own family refused to come. During the procession to the cemetery, local men who didn’t know Radhi took turns carrying the body as a sign of respect. At the gravesite, Jonas felt out of place while standing with his family to receive condolences. Afterward, his father drove him back to Tunis. 

On the way, Jonas asked about the previous tenant, and his father confirmed that it was Anastasia. He recounted driving a distraught Anastasia to the airport; she was high, was obsessed with the family curse, and refused to leave Tunisia. To get her on the plane, he promised he would find the person responsible for the curse and make them reverse it. When Jonas asked if he ever found the person, his father was evasive.

Anastasia and Daniela see each other at school. Daniela insists that the electric shock was her own fault, as she was trying to replace the blocking device to protect Anastasia from getting into trouble with the landlord. She declines Anastasia’s invitation to meet later. 

That weekend, Anastasia goes to a farewell party alone, where she gets high and drunk. She sees Daniela, who is still injured from the electrical accident. They only nod to each other. Daniela later tries to convince a drunk Anastasia to leave, but Anastasia pushes her away and continues her self-destructive behavior, kissing other people and climbing onto a rooftop ledge. It’s the last time they see each other.

During his 2004 summer in Tunis, Jonas dated Fazila, a French Tunisian woman who believed she was protected by a guardian angel. When Jonas told her about the Mikkola sisters’ curse, Fazila insisted that he had to help them by finding the person responsible for the curse. Jonas, a firm rationalist, scoffed at her superstitious belief, leading to an argument. To prove her point, Fazila dared to place a curse on him. After he revealed a genuine fear of a curse on his writing ability, she instead cursed him to never be able to get close to anyone. He agreed, and she performed a brief ritual

In a flash-forward to many years later, Anastasia is a highly successful but overworked advertising executive. She has a daughter, Nina, with a man named Åhdal but is emotionally distant from her family. Burned out, she finds solace sitting alone in empty churches. She reflects on a moment from her summer in Tunisia when Daniela admitted her love for Anastasia. At the time, Anastasia was too afraid of the family curse to say it back. Seventeen years later, she still regrets her silence and wonders how her life might have been different.

At the end of Jonas’s stay in Tunis, his father drove him to the airport. Jonas asked again about the Mikkola family curse. His father finally revealed the source: The sisters’ mother stole the identity and passport of her own sister, the real Selima, to escape to Europe. This sister now lived in New York. 

At the departure gate, Jonas’s father spoke fondly of the girls’ mother but proved his love for Jonas’s mother by showing a tattoo he had of her initials. When Jonas asked about another tattoo of someone else’s initials, his father deflected. After a brief goodbye, Jonas boarded his plane and texted his father, continuing to check his phone for a reply until a flight attendant told him to turn it off.

In August 2003, Hector and his friends Kim and Åhdal officially launch their publishing house. Motivated by the Said lecture and a mix of inspiration and jealousy sparked by Simon’s effortless launch of his own law firm, as well as Ina’s pregnancy, Hector is determined to start the project. 

After rejecting several pretentious names, they settle on Åhdal’s suggestion: Slakthuset (Slaughterhouse). They excitedly brainstorm how their press will “slaughter” the literary establishment.

After returning from Tunisia, Anastasia reluctantly consults a medium to learn how to break her family’s curse. The medium channels Selima’s spirit, expressing love and regret and advising Anastasia to live independently. She warns that the curse is strong and will be inherited by future generations unless Anastasia and her “siblings” break it. The medium’s use of the word “siblings” confuses Anastasia, who insists that she only has sisters. The message breaks off, leaving the mystery unresolved. That night, Anastasia begins reading her mother’s notebooks.

While walking home from their publishing-house meeting, Hector, Kim, and Åhdal encounter the Stockholm Pride parade. Kim dismisses it as a corporate spectacle, while Åhdal defends its political importance, continuing their typical pattern of intellectual debate. Hector isn’t engaged in the argument because he spots a woman in the parade who’s photographing the parade audience. He feels an instant, powerful sense of kinship with her, as if she belongs to the same intellectual and cultural “tribe” as him, but he doesn’t approach her.

In September 2003, Anastasia immerses herself in her mother’s 13 notebooks, transcribing the mix of journal entries, lists, and poems that reveal a complex inner life of mental struggle and contradictory ideas. 

At her job at Gullvivan Preschool, Anastasia becomes increasingly critical of the permissive parenting she witnesses. Her more structured, “authoritarian” approach with the children leads to a gentle warning from her boss. She finds an ally in her colleague Dino, who shares her views. After work, they smoke marijuana on a hill overlooking the water, bonding over their shared frustrations.

That fall, Hector is surprised to find that the woman from the Pride parade, Klara, is a student in his university class. She proves to be exceptionally brilliant, and a platonic friendship develops between them. Ina becomes suspicious when she notices Hector making an extra effort in his appearance on the days he teaches Klara’s class. 

In October, Klara comes to Hector’s office and informs him that Professor Lagerhjelm has a history of sexually assaulting female students. She details his methodical grooming process and reveals that he attempted to do the same to her. Hector’s initial defensiveness crumbles as Klara tells him that she wanted him to know the truth about the man he admires.

Anastasia attends a warehouse party to see Dino perform his first paid DJ set. She arrives early to an empty dance floor and is mesmerized as he plays one of his original tracks. Afterward, Anastasia tells him that his song is brilliant, and he reveals that he produced it himself. Convinced that the song will be a hit and will change the world, Anastasia skips work to begin promoting Dino’s music.

In November 2003, an emergency staff meeting is held to address accusations against Professor Lagerhjelm. Lagerhjelm begins by grandstanding about his career and dismissing the accusations as mere infatuations. Hector interrupts and directly accuses Lagerhjelm of raping the student, but Lagerhjelm continues to belittle the claims. 

As the head of the department tries to end the meeting by stating that the institution cannot act without an official complaint, Hector produces a written testimony from the student. Lagerhjelm snatches the papers from Hector and, after reading the first few lines, realizes how damaging they are. In response, Hector issues an ultimatum: If Lagerhjelm isn’t fired, he will resign. He then walks out, feeling a sense of freedom.

In November 2003, Anastasia agrees to meet her ex-boyfriend Mathias after he contacts her for the first time in years with a lengthy text apologizing for his past wrongdoings. At a café, Mathias appears healthier and explains that he has been sober for nine months, has found religion, and is studying to be an art conservator. He then confronts Anastasia, claiming that he heard she’s using drugs again. When Anastasia denies this and asks him to stop, he grabs her hand and urges her to accept the “power of Christ” (405). Anastasia screams, causing the café owner to intervene and force Mathias to leave. Before he departs, Mathias is seen giving the owner a flyer.

After resigning from the university, Hector dedicates himself to Slakthuset, which he now runs from his aunt’s basement. Motivated by Ina’s pregnancy, he works feverishly to establish the press as a home for “unbounded” writing. He receives a manuscript from Anastasia and calls a meeting with Kim and Åhdal to discuss it. 

Anastasia interrupts the meeting, revealing that the text is a collaboration with her mother. However, Hector, Kim, and Åhdal admit that they find the manuscript bizarre and unpublishable. Hector asks Anastasia if she has started using drugs again, which she angrily denies. She snatches her manuscript back, declares that she’s moving out of Ina’s apartment, and storms off. 

The chapter flashes forward to years later. A financially struggling Hector wonders if rejecting Anastasia’s manuscript was the first of many mistakes.

In late 2003, Anastasia relentlessly pushes CDs of Dino’s music on Stockholm’s DJs. Initially annoyed by her and the strange, lengthy tracks, the DJs eventually play the music and find that it has a powerful effect on the dance floor. 

Anastasia, acting as manager for Dino, lands him a record deal with a British label, and he releases a critically acclaimed vinyl. However, Dino produces no further music and vanishes from the scene. Anastasia’s tenacity earns her a reputation as an effective promoter, and she builds a successful career. 

Years later, the now-aging DJs are hired for a corporate agency gig and are stunned to see that Anastasia is their boss for the event and the agency’s creative director. The DJs avoid speaking to her, feeling insecure about their careers. Afterward, they realize that she must have personally hired them and wonder if it was an act of gratitude or a display of her success.