TUE—November 7—6 PM, free

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Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On November 7, join us for a discussion of Swedish author Amanda Svensson’s A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, a joyful family saga about free will, forgiveness and how we are all interconnected, longlisted for the International Booker Prize and out now in translation by Nichola Smalley.

On October 1989, a set of triplets is born, and it is this moment their father chooses to reveal his affair. Over two decades later, Sebastian is recruited to join a mysterious organization, the London Institute of Cognitive Science, where he meets Laura Kadinsky, a patient whose inability to see the world in three dimensions is not the only thing about her that intrigues him. Meanwhile, Clara has traveled to Easter Island to join a doomsday cult, and the third triplet, Matilda, is in Sweden, trying to escape from the color blue.

Then something happens that forces the triplets to reunite. Their mother calls with worrying news: their father has gone missing and she has something to tell them, a 25-year secret that will change all their lives…

“A dynamic novel about methods of coping in a world where nothing is certain”—Publishers Weekly

“This is a prismatic, hilarious, and deeply intelligent novel overflowing with wisdom about the complexities of being alive—I read it ravenously, and with pen in hand” (Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had)

About the Author

Amanda Svensson grew up in Malmö. She studied creative writing and has translated books by Ali Smith, Tessa Hadley, and Kristen Roupenian. A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding was awarded the Per Olov Enquist Literary Prize and the Svenska Dagbladet Literature Prize. It is shortlisted for Tidningen Vi’s Literature Prize.

About the Translator

Nichola Smalley is a translator of Swedish and Norwegian literature. Her translation of Andrzej Tichý’s novel Wretchedness won the 2021 Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Bernard Shaw Prize that same year. She lives in London.