Read and discuss Scandinavian literature in translation as part of our Nordic Book Club, now online! Each month we select a novel from some of the best Nordic literary voices. Discussions have typically taken place the last Tuesday of the month at Scandinavia House but will now be taking place bi-weekly as an online meeting. Register here to sign up for the meeting; registrants will receive a web link to where the meeting will take place.

Book club participants will all appear online at the start of the meeting when they log in so that they are able to take part in the conversation. For participants who would prefer not to be visible onscreen, see an easy tutorial online here on how to set a profile image that will appear onscreen instead.

On October 6, we’ll be discussing The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, who joined us for an online conversation about the book on September 9. Per a longstanding family agreement, a grandfather has maintained his Swedish residency while living abroad by coming to stay with his son every six months. On this visit, in his mind, the son is a failure; the daughter is having a baby with the wrong man; and only the grandfather is perfect—at least, according to himself. But over the course of ten intense days, as relationships unfold and painful memories resurface, the grandfather is confronted by his past, while the daughter is faced with an impossible choice, and the son attempts to write himself free. Can this family clause be renegotiated, or will it chain the family to its past forever?

Through a series of quickly changing perspectives, Jonas Hassen Khemiri evokes an intimate portrait of a chaotic and perfectly normal family, deeply wounded by the death of a child and the disappearance of a father.