Illustration by DALL·E (+PJ)
On January 9th 2024, John Self published in The Guardian a review of The Singularity by Balsam Karam – a brilliant and beautiful study of displacement.
An extract from that review :
“This tale of migration and motherhood by the Swedish-Kurdish author is satisfyingly full of narrative surprises
At first glance this looks like a book that might have been put together by artificial intelligence to blend reliably successful elements. […]
But then comes the shift that AI would never predict and which insists upon the reader the importance of a writer who remains one step ahead. […]
But as it turns out, The Singularity, the second novel (and first to be published in English) by Balsam Karam, a Swedish author of Iranian-Kurdish descent, is evidence of the unique genius of human creativity. No machine could deliver the surprises, the tonal shifts and the blend of empathy and irony that make it so satisfying.”
Weird as well as strange: “At first glance this looks like a book that might have been put together by artificial intelligence to blend reliably successful elements”, and at second glance, “no machine could deliver” a narrative “so satisfying”? Still, one mystery remains to be solved: why on earth would a book devoted to the plight of refugees be called The Singularity?
Illustration by DALL·E (+PJ)