Stolen

Description

By (author) Laestadius, Ann-Helén

**SOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM**
**THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER ONE-BESTSELLER**
‘A coming-of-age-storyto be loved everywhere in the world’ FREDRIK BACKMAN, author of A MAN CALLED OVE
___________________________________________The international sensation: the story of a young Sámi girl”s coming-of-age, and a powerful fable about family, identity and justiceNine-year-old Elsa lives just north of the Arctic Circle. She and her family are Sámi – Scandinavia’s indigenous people – and make their living herding reindeer.One morning when Elsa goes skiing alone, she witnesses a man brutally killing her reindeer calf, Nástegallu. Elsa recognises the man but refuses to tell anyone – least of all the Swedish police force – about what she saw. Instead, she carries her secret as a dark weight on her heart.Elsa comes of age fighting two wars: one within her community, where male elders expect young women to know their place; and against the ever-escalating wave of prejudice and violence against the Sámi.When Elsa finds herself the target of the man who killed her reindeer calf all those years ago, something inside of her finally breaks. The guilt, fear, and anger she’s been carrying since childhood come crashing over her like an avalanche, and will lead Elsa to a final catastrophic confrontation.

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Stolen is an extraordinary novel. A coming-of-age-story you”ll get lost in, about youth and heritage and the never-ending struggle to be allowed to exist. Although set in the coldest and most northern part of Scandinavia, I”m convinced it’s a universal story to be loved everywhere in the world

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Beautiful and devastating, Stolen shines a powerful and important light on the Sámi community and the growing challenges they face in a changing world

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Viscerally clear fiction of both the fractured, violent nature of the Sámi’s relationship with their Nordic occupiers and the coming of age of an innocent girl. Written with such cool clarity, Stolen is a perfect metaphor of our slippery grip on humanity and our tenuous relationship with the Earth

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Sámi author Ann-Helén Laestadius has written a fresh, devastating, and insightful novel about Sámi life and the struggle for justice in a rapidly changing world. A love for the imperiled landscape reverberates throughout this engaging read

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Stolen is in equal measure a gripping and thrilling mystery as it is a testament to the continued beating heart of Sámi life. Ann-Helén Laestadius takes her place as an important voice in world Indigenous literature

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Laestadius’s nuanced English-language debut is a story of a family torn apart by cultural tensions … The sense of place and character development make for an affecting portrait of the Sámi’s disenfranchisement

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A revelatory account of not-well-known assaults on the rights of an Indigenous group … The legacies of long-held social prejudices against the Indigenous group – racism, economic insecurity, and the traumas borne by the community’s elders who had been removed from the group in childhood and sent to “nomad schools” – continue to haunt Sámi life with devastating effects … Looming over the tale is the spectre of climate change and its impacts on the traditional Sámi herding methods

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A sharp and socially critical novel with an intensity that makes it powerful and strong … Whatever you do, don’t miss out on this novel

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Laestadius writes with burning intensity about a community around the Arctic Circle that is rarely portrayed. Her commitment shines through and constantly urges the reader to continue reading. It may be foolhardy to name this year’s most powerful b