Happy Book Birthday to The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel

Today, we are so excited to be celebrating the publication of The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel!

Happy Book Birthday to The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel!

Today we welcome the first release from our Winter/Spring 2024 season. Marking Karam’s English language debut, The Singularity is a formally inventive, powerful, political, and devastating novel about migration, war, displacement, living in exile, loss, longing, and mothers and daughters.

Lyrical and devastating, The Singularity is a breathtaking study of grief, migration, and motherhood from one of Sweden’s most exciting contemporary novelists. Balsam Karam is a shining star in contemporary European literature who bucks traditional notions of Swedish literature, writing from a marginalized perspective. Written in dense, rhythmic, and atmospheric prose, and beautifully translated by award-winning writer and translator Saskia Vogel, The Singularity is a vivid reminder of the ripple effects across time and nations in past and current humanitarian crises.

Karam shared this video to introduce readers to The Singularity in anticipation of the book’s release.

Advance Praise for The Singularity

“I don’t know anyone who writes like Balsam Karam. She blows me away. Truly one of the most original and extraordinary voices to come out of Scandinavia in…forever. You’ll realize twenty minutes after you’ve finished this book that you’re still sitting there, holding on to it.”
—Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove

“Balsam Karam writes at the limits of narrative, limning the boundary of loss where ‘no space remains between bodies in the singularity.’ With a lucid intimacy, Karam braids a story of witness and motherhood that fractures from within only to rebuild memory and home on its own terms. The Singularity is a book of conviction where those who have been made to disappear find light and keep their secrets too.”
—Shazia Hafiz Ramji, author of Port of Being

“The Singularity by Balsam Karam is a novel about loss and longing—a mother who misses her child, children who miss their mother, and all of those who miss their country as they try to feel the new earth in their new land. A deeply moving work of fiction from a true voice of Scandinavia.”
—Shahrnush Parsipur, author of Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran

“Lyrical, devastating, and completely original, The Singularity is a work of extraordinary vision and heart. Balsam Karam’s writing is formally inventive and stylistically breathtaking, and Saskia Vogel’s translation does shining justice to its poetic precision and depths.”
—Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath

____________________________________________________________________________________________

That’s all for now, dear reader. Please join us again in wishing a very Happy Book Birthday to The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel. Available now from our online shop or from your local independent bookstore. Happy reading!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (for now), and Bluesky Social, for updates on new and forthcoming releases, special features, events, and more.

Stay up to date on all upcoming events by visiting our events calendar.