Eine sehr interessante Geschichte über ein Land und einen Volksstamm, über den ich kaum etwas wusste.
Man darf nicht vergessen, das das Buch jetzt in der aktuellen Gegenwart spielt.
Es geht um das Sami-Mädchen Elsa. Elsa hat als Kind gesehen, wie ihr Rentier getötet wurde und Zeit ihres Lebens miterlebt, wie Rentiere gewildert wurden. Nie wurde ernsthaft ermittelt. Das Volk der Samen ist in Schweden deutlichem Rassismus ausgesetzt. Bis heute hat Schweden nicht die ILO 169 (das Übereinkommen über eingeborene und in Stämmen lebende Völker in unabhängigen Ländern (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention)) ratifiziert. Die Nomadenschulen, welche im Buch auch vorkommen, als sich die alte Großmutter in ihrer beginnenden Demenz daran erinnert, sind ein trauriges Kapitel. Das Buch schildert die Lebensweise und Probleme der modernen Sami in einer packenden Geschichte. ( )

I did love the Millennium Trilogy when it was big, but haven’t generally found myself otherwise drawn to Scandinavian literature. This book is in some ways representative of why that is: prose that feels flat, characters with limited emotional range, a certain kind of bleakness. I never know where to assess “blame” when I don’t care for the writing style of a translated work, but I didn’t find it compelling at all. The story itself also never really came together for me. A little girl, Elsa, who is Sàmi, witnesses a neighbor killing one of the family’s reindeer one night, and the man threatens Elsa to remain silent. The family is part of a reindeer herding collective in their village in the traditional Sàpmi homeland of their people, and this killing is part of the overall hostility of their Swedish neighbors to the Sàmi and their way of life. The book follows the immediate aftermath of the reindeer poaching, and then switches perspective to ten years later, when Elsa is an adult who has returned to the village because she wants to continue her family’s tradition as her life’s work. The neighbor is still around, still threatening, still a problem. The story itself feels like it’s checking off a list of issues the Sàmi face: despair/mental health challenges (particularly for the young men), police refusing to treat crimes against them with any real seriousness, tension from Swedes who believe that they receive undeserved benefits, climate change, the history of “nomad” schools which sought to forcibly integrate the indigenous population by cutting them off from their own families, languages, and traditions, tourists who treat them as living museum exhibits, as well as xenophobia and sexism within the Sàmi community itself. But that’s what it feels like: box-checking. Elsa herself was also difficult character for me as a narrative center: as an adult, particularly, she’s rigid and often self-righteous in a way that makes it hard to really connect with her. A nonfiction essay collection might have been the better route to take here. ( )

I found this book to be a slow burn - hard to get into a first and then sucked me right in with a solid finish. The story of a Sami family of reindeer herders and the injustices against them is difficult to read. We visited Norway and spoke with some Sami people at a reindeer activity and found that this is an ongoing problem even now. The story is told from the point of view of a young girl and continues into her adulthood as she carries the trauma inflicted as a youngster and tries to protect her family and heritage. Recommended. ( )

What an interesting book. We meet Elsa at age 9 when she inadvertently comes across a local man in the act of killing reindeer. There is a conflict between the indigenous populations of northern Scandinavia, whose culture and life revolves around the care of the herds and the Swedish population who resent the space the reindeer take and the special consideration they feel they must make to the Sami. The stress of this conflict is evident in school yard fights, discrimination and even suicide. Elsa also must contend with gender discrimination because women don't work with the reindeer in her culture, only the men. I learned so much from reading this book. Highly recommended. ( )

At nine Elsa sees the man who has just killed her reindeer and he gestures that he will kill her if she tells. In a life that is difficult partly because she is Sami and and more so because she isn't quite Sami enough - her mother's people left the culture - is made grimmer by the relentless stalking of the community's reindeer by outsiders. The book moves well enough but is pretty much all in one tone and mood. There is some portrayal of community life but that is dampened by Elsa's somewhat self-imposed marginalization. This isn't a book to make Swedes proud of themselves, but portrays them as indifferent to Sami issues where not downright hostile. ( )