ONE EYE RED

In this funny and moving debut novel, we are immersed in the world of Halim, a young middle-school boy who has lost his way in a fundamentalist world of ideas. Father and son have just moved from the immigrant-dominated suburbs to central Stockholm where the father hopes to give his son better opportunities than he had before. Halim, however, feels that his father has started to lose his focus and faith, that he has given up the fight. Halim wants to restore immigrant honour, but discovers that it is not quite as easy as he thinks. He dreams of becoming a kind of super immigrant – a sultan of thought – a badass revolutionary bringing renewed pride to his community. At the same time he tries to distance himself from all  the confrontations at school (without much success) and get a little closer to a girl he has had his eye on (which is not without its problems either).  Reflecting Halim’s feelings  of alienation, Khemiri tells his story in a purposefully broken Swedish, it is superbly rhythmic, and wonderfully high-handed.

One Eye Red has sold over 200.000 copies in Sweden and became the best-selling paperback of any category in 2004. For One Eye Red Jonas Hassen Khemiri received the Borås Tidning award for best literary debut, Sweden's most important award for a first book. In the fall of 2007 the film based on One Eye Red opened in Swedish cinemas.

Translation rights sold to Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro.