Invasion!

Invasion! is a wide-ranging collection of material from Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s celebrated writings.

The title of the book comes from the name of Khemiri’s first play, which was performed before sold out houses by the Stockholm City Theatre and became one of the biggest public hits of recent years. The book also contains "Five Times God", a new play that serves as somewhat of a companion piece.

A number of short stories and commentaries, which have been published in some of Sweden’s biggest daily newspapers and heard on Swedish Public Radio, weave their way between the two plays. Whatever literary form Khemiri chooses, the reader has the opportunity to savour the same powerful prose.

Rights sold to:
Oberon Books, Great Britain

Press voices:

“It seems that everything Khemiri touches turns to gold. And with talent like his, how could it be any other way?” Corren

“Khemiri's collection of stories, essays and plays reveals a marvellous sense of humour. His irony flies off in all directions and subverts our most cherished beliefs. He is a linguistic innovator, and he fashions his ideological critique to support that mission.” Svenska Dagbladet
 
“He no longer has anything to prove. Even the kind of collection that rarely attracts much attention is vital and inventive... You wonder who gave him the right to be so good… If this is meant to be a modest effort, we can only expect great things to come.” Dagens Nyheter

“His prose is both dazzling and importunate with its insidious, ironic trapdoors... He's got to be the most genuine writer of my generation.” Sydsvenskan

“Invasion!... is a powerful, unnerving attack on drama as an art form and on entrenched middle-class prejudices, all executed with linguistic playfulness. Khemiri has been the best that Sweden has to offer ever since Ett Öga Rött, his debut novel.” Borås Tidning

“He is a startling, almost acrobatic word craftsman.... Invasion! gives us a first row seat to what may be Sweden's most powerful, virtuoso language laboratory at the moment.” Dalademokraten

“Khemiri's greatest asset is his spirited and inexhaustible reservoir of language.” Helsingborgs Dagblad

“What an accomplishment!... His irony is tempered by conciliatory humanism, his audacity is tamed by obstinate humility, and his humour escapes innocuousness by gazing into the void and the abyss. Khemiri's mastery is particularly evident in his laconic drama and deliberate timing.” Norrbottens-Kuriren

“He portrays both his characters and his settings with intelligence and imagination, ingenious humour and subterranean social criticism.” Norrköpings Tidningar

“Khemiri's talent, ingenuity and intelligence take over the moment he puts his pen to paper.” Arbetarbladet

“Very effective, always with perfectly calibrated rage just beneath the surface.” Göteborgs-Posten

Great reviews for the play Invasion!:

“Invasion!” by Jonas Hassen Khemiri …. is a slyly entertaining comedy with a sharp political edge.
- New York Times, Jason Zinoman

The play is very, very funny. It starts explosively and gets even more explosive as it moves along, picking up a strong political bent that maybe you don't see coming right at the beginning. It was written in 2006, and it is very much a post-9/11, post-Iraqi War/War on Terror play. It holds a broken, funhouse mirror up to the way the world has gotten to be since those events took hold of America and the world. …. Erica Schmidt has directed Invasion! expertly,…. the production is skillfully designed…. Everything serves the objectives of the play, to take us on a strange journey and pull us up short when we least expect it. It's a stimulating, challenging, and rewarding ride.
- nytheatre.com, Martin Denton

If you’ve ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East—somebody has.
- Villagevoice.com, Jacob Gallagher-Ross

Playfulness and seriousness intermingle to disturbing --and awfully satisfying --effect in Swedish novelist and playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Invasion! .... Theatergoers find themselves hooked from the show's opening moments, easily following the dizzying barrage of characters and narratives and grasping the unsettling, but never pedantic, commentary that Khemini is offering up about the nature of racial stereotypes and the concept of terrorism in today's world.
- Theatermania.com, Andy Propst

Provocative, daring and often startlingly insightful, Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri outdoes himself in this play which combines a narrative told from multiple perspectives with social commentary and exhilarating wordplay. …. Invasion! is undoubtedly one of the more important plays to land on American shores in several years. …. The play is a startlingly heartfelt and clever indictment of arrogance and militarism, along with a more subtle critique of the Western tendency to judge and form conclusions about those about whom the West knows very little — the "other," whether immigrant, refugee, or anyone else, is easy to stereotype and pigeonhole. It's one of the best social commentaries in dramatic form of the past few years, and you owe it to yourself to see it as soon as you can.
- CurtainUp.com, Gregory A. Wilson

Witty satire on immigration and ethnic identity … theatrical and political ideas bouncing off each other like pinballs.
- Backstage.com, A.J. Mell

"Ask no more questions. Do not hesitate. This is without a doubt one of the best plays I have seen this entire season – and that includes Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. It's an extremely intelligent, linguistically complex, politically charged, attention grabbing, rapid-fire tour de force for each of its 75 sharply written, cunningly directed, and superbly acted and deliciously well received minutes."
- New York NearSay

"in the hands of director Erica Schmidt and in the voices and interpretative moments of all four ensemble actors, this play is funny, sad, and thoroughly engaging."
- Berkshire Fine Arts