Singularity

In an unnamed coastal city home to many refugees, a mother of a displaced family searches for her child, calling her name as she wanders along the cliffside road where her daughter used to work. She searches and searches until, devoid of hope and frantic with grief, she throws herself into the sea, leaving her other children behind. Bearing witness to this suicide is another woman – on a business trip from a distant country, with a swollen belly that later gives birth to a stillborn baby. In the wake of her pain, the second woman remembers other losses – of a language, a country, an identity – when once her family fled a distant war. Lyrical and devastating, The Singularity is a study of grief, migration and motherhood from one of Sweden's most exciting new novelists.

‘To read The Singularity is like drinking directly from a flood of tears.’ — Aftonbladet, ‘The Singularity is a novel that appears to have been created from dark matter, elusive, giddying and with an enormous linguistic and narrative density.’ — Expressen, ‘Balsam Karam’s language is entirely her own. It is poetic and suggestive.... The Singularity is a journey into a black hole. A point of no return.’ — Jönköpings-Posten, ‘I cannot recall anyone else in contemporary Swedish literature who writes like Karam.’ — Svenska Dagbladet

Balsam Karam is of Kurdish ancestry and has lived in Sweden since she was a young child. She is an author and librarian and made her literary debut in 2018 with the critically acclaimed Event Horizon, which was shortlisted for the Katapult Prize. The Singularity is her second novel.