Montecore

You remember the Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried and Roy, right? During one performance Roy was suddenly attacked by one of their white tigers. That tiger’s name was Montecore. What that has to do with the story below you’ll have to work out for yourselves.

In Montecore, the author Jonas Hassen Khemiri has recently finished Ett öga rött/One Eye Red when he receives an e-mail from Kadir. Kadir introduces himself as a childhood friend of Jonas’ father, and, speaking in a very peculiar and comical homemade linguistic concoction of French, Arabic and Swedish, urges Jonas to devote himself to a more worthy subject this time; namely to write a book about his father, a famous photographer. Jonas starts to sketch out such a story, which triggers a lot of memories from his childhood. Kadir’s, to say the least, linguistically innovative letter about growing up in Tunisia is mixed with Jonas’ memories from his own childhood, and in switching back and forth between these two temperaments and languages – which in the end develops almost into a battle – a story develops about coming to and growing up in a country where tolerance and diversity are the bywords of the day, but where racism and xenophobia form part of everyday life.

As we near the end, the political climate in the country has become more hostile to people of foreign backgrounds, and there is a murderer on the loose in Stockholm; a murderer whose laser sight is trained squarely on immigrant victims.

But there’s something fishy about Kadir and his constant letter writing; the way he defends Jonas’ father’s actions with increasing tenacity. Who is he? And what actually happened to Jonas’ father?

Rights sold to:
Piper Verlag, Germany
Gyldendal, Denmark
Gyldendal Litteratur, Norway
Johnny Kniga, Finland
De Geus, the Netherlands
Le Serpent à Plumes, France
Gondolat Kiado, Hungary
Ugo Guanda Editore, Italy
Alfred A Knopf, USA
Hayakawa, Japan
Roca, Spain

Praise for Montecore

”Montecore is a weave of performances, a literary performance where the authenticity catches fire, and the language is like a nimble tiger leaping through the flaming ring. It’s beautiful, so beautiful that it’s hard to tear your eyes away, but at the same time there is a lot more to this novel than just form./…/ You devour it./…/ There isn’t a dull moment, it’s bursting with narrative joy."  Aftonbladet

"Just how he gets a subject like integration to rock I don’t know, but he does it."
Kulturnyheterna SVT

"It’s smart, hip and inventive, but it is, in essence, a heart-wrenching work of incredible craftsmanship. /… / The greeting invariably used by all the fathers in Montecore is, ”Hi there, you old shoe.”  ”Hi there,” you want to answer and add, ”hope we meet again."  Sydsvenskan

"A rich tapestry of warm feelings and inexhaustible energy/…/ Jonas Hassen Khemiri has once again taken a classic story and given it an extra twist so that light and shadow fall differently than we are used to. /…/ In Montecore the self is put at stake in order to paint a revealing picture that deviates from the official image of Sweden as a democratic, egalitarian country."  Dagens Nyheter

"I think that the portrayal of the father Abbas is one of the most tender I have ever read."  Göteborgs-Posten

“Khemiri punctures the conceit of language, the Achilles heel of Swedish complacency.”  Expressen

“Montecore is a deadly serious attack on the malignancy of correctness in our patterns of thought, the way that racists, fundamentalists and humanists dance around the same Maypole of platitudes. ‘Can anyone ever understand a fate other than their own?’ sighs the author’s voice. ‘Doubt has begin to tug at my chest.’ Don't sigh, tell us more.”  Sveriges Radio (Swedish Public Radio)

“Khemiri's sombre humour is reminiscent of Zadie Smith and Hari Kunzru. But he's got a voice all his own. With one foot in the immigrant community and his head in the clouds, he flaunts his rare storytelling ability. A unique virtuoso.”  Östgöta Correspondenten
 
“Montecore, Khemiri's second novel, not only lives up to its enormous expectations but surpasses them.”  Borås Tidning

 "To those whose experience of Swedish fiction has been as bleak as Nordic winter, Montecore arrives as a sunny revelation. An exuberant account…the novel in fact challenges assumptions about Swedish identity…A rollicking tale."
- Barnes & Noble

"A vibrant story of culture, class, and family history enlivened by Khemiri’s subtle wit and voice."
- Publishers Weekly

The novel is at its most exciting on the level of linguistic performance. A constantly changing creole, its voice shifts registers and references, revealing the substantial emotional gaps that open up in characters and cultures when they’re remixed in this way. …. The novel is funny, ambitious and inventive. Also black: rage and tragedy pulse beneath the fireworks. … a potent chemical mix.
- The New York Times, Ander Monson