This book was one that didn’t do anything for me
I considered DNFing it but I persevered
I felt the storyline was weak

The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri is an insightful delineation of family dynamics and miscommunications.

In The Family Clause we encounter a father who is a grandfather, a son who is a father and a sister who is a mother (we never learn their names) as they navigate a ten day visit that the older man makes to Sweden every 60 days, ostensibly to visit his adult children and their children, but in reality to ensure he retains his legal right to stay there.
This is very much a character driven novel that encapsulates the minutiae and tedium of domestic life with small children more accurately than I have ever read; the feeling that you have done so much and are so exhausted yet it is only 7am, and how are you going to keep going until bedtime tonight? Jonas Hassen Khemiri also describes the complexity and obligations of familial and romantic relationships so well that the reader identifies with the characters, even if that doesn’t mean agreeing with them!

It took me a while to read this, and whilst I thought it was enjoyable I didn't love it, this could have been due to the writing or the characters. It just didn't jive with this like I do with other books.

The story of the book is flawless and I enjoyed every bit of it. I especially loved the sarcastic writing style, more particularly mentioned relalsionships.

The plot and describing nature of the book is wonderfully compelling. I would definitely but it

Two things drew me to Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Family Clause: I’d enjoyed his previous novel, Everything I Don’t Remember, very much back in 2016 and the blurb sounded tempting with its promise of chaotic and discordant family life. I’d been expecting a fairly straightforward linear narrative but that’s not Khemiri’s style. This everyday tale of a dysfunctional family unfolds over the course of the twice-yearly visit by its patriarch who spends the rest of his time in another country. By the time he packs his suitcase full of things to sell back in the other country where such goods are scarce, everything and nothing will have changed.

I very nearly gave The Family Clause up a few pages into it but perseverance paid off. Khemiri gives each day of the patriarch’s visit a chapter, dipping in and out of the heads off the major characters, named only in their relationship to each other and their current status,. He deftly juggles this tricky narrative style which reflects the chaos and dysfunction of the family, leavening the pathos of the damage done over the years with wit and humour, Not an easy read but once used to it, I found myself curiously addicted.

A fascinating cross section of a family in everyday peril. Masterful language mines the fraught relationships between people who while related by blood don't understand each other.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book. Steady paced, great characters, I was absorbed throughout. Will be reading more books by the author in the future!

Complicated family relationship, well examined. More humour than I expected and some sentiment too, but certainly not cloying.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.