Nature versus nurture, animal cognition, order and chance, the climate crisis, the structure of the brain and the nature of consciousness … Global in scope, Amanda Svensson’s hefty novel boasts even heftier themes. To address the question of whether there is an ultimate pattern to existence, she carefully assembles her materials, sets up stringent lab conditions, and runs a series of rigorous tests. But because she’s a novelist rather than a scientist, her discoveries are carefully planted; and, as you might expect of Ali Smith’s Swedish translator, she is playfully experimental.
The Izaksson triplets – Sebastian, Matilda and Clara – are puzzlingly dissimilar, each having fled their native city of Lund for different reasons: angry Tilda to Berlin in pursuit of love, depressed Sebastian to London to work for a scientific institute, and confused Clara to Easter Island to report on a cult-like group of environmental pessimists waiting calmly for the end of the world. A possible clue to the triplets’ disparity comes with a belated revelation from their mother: their birth was so chaotic that the ailing newborn who was whisked away for urgent care may not have been the same baby that returned. But which triplet is the changeling?
