This book reminds me of an Appalachian ballad: filled with love of the land and culture, family, purposefully ineffective police, murder, and grief. 
It details the coming of age of a Sami girl, beginning on the day she finds her reindeer butchered by a neighbor who is not a tribe member. The rest of the books shows her growing up, the changes in her family, and her ongoing battle to force the police to treat the slaughter of her tribe’s reindeer seriously. 
It begins with a deeply traumatized little girl, and ends with an even more traumatized, but brave and determined woman. I think Elsa is one of the most honest characters I’ve read in awhile, which comes with the author’s comfort with showing a story that doesn’t have a happy ending. The police never really come to care about the concerns of the Sami, climate change is affecting the village they live in, her family is deeply dysfunctional and everyone in her family has mental health issues, and the future of the reindeer herds is still up in the air… but there she stands, strong, proud, and tragic. 
This isn’t a story of overcoming trauma, it’s a story about how sometimes life is just messed up and we have to survive it. 
Beyond the raw beauty of the portrayal of Elsa and her family and friends, the racism and oppression of the Sami people is in stark contrast to the deeply loving portrayal of Sami culture in a way that makes the descriptions of oppression hit even harder, such as the scenes where Elsa’s grandmother’s dementia causes her to relive her days in boarding school. 
In short, this is a poignant story about Indigenous suffering and grief, but still balanced with strength and somehow not without hope. 

August 9th is World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In anticipation and observance of the holiday, I’ve been spending some time learning about the Sámi people. The only indigenous people of Europe, the Sámi’s ancestral lands are in an area known as Sápmi, spanning the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. During my research, I stumbled upon this book.

Stolen tells the story of Elsa, a young Sámi girl who witnesses the poaching of a beloved reindeer, Nástegallu. This traumatizing event is only the beginning for Elsa, as she grows up and continues to witness against racism and xenophobia, unchecked mental health struggles in her community, climate change, and ever-present threat to their reindeer and, thereby, their very ways of life.

Strong TW for animal torture and death. At several points, I had to just put this book down and cry after reading some of the descriptions; but I still think they were important to include. Though technically fictional, Stolen is inspired by real events, and these are horrific experiences that Sámi   reindeer herders experience. 

There is more than just trauma in these pages, though. While portraying the very real struggles that the Sámi experience, Laestadius, a Sámi woman herself, also clearly wrote this as a love letter to her culture and community. We get wonderful glimpses into culture, food, clothing, tradition. Though my Swedish didn’t come in handy very often, I enjoyed learning some new Sámi vocab words as well!

If you’re looking to broaden your knowledge of other cultures, I highly recommend Stolen. Before I was even halfway through, I pre-ordered Laestadius’ next book, Punished, which is also inspired by the true events of Sámi children taken from their families to state-mandated “nomad schools” - Scandinavian versions of the residential schools that Native American children were forced into in the US and Canada. 

Netflix has adapted Stolen into a movie which was released in April of this year. I’ll be spending my afternoon watching the movie!

I started listening to the audiobook which was a lovely way to get the sound of the Sámi words in my head, but then I wanted to read faster so I switched to the hard copy. This is a fascinating setting and community I knew next to nothing about. There’s so much pain and joy for the characters trying to navigate their endangered way of life. It’s also an interesting and infuriating look at a very different flavor of racism and police complicity than I’m used to thinking about.

Heftige omschrijvingen, maar wauw! Voor iemand die de cultuur niet kent is het ontzettend leerzaam en je voelt enorm mee met de personages en dieren in het boek. Elke keer was ik weer in 'awe' over hoe mensen toch prachtig in verbinding kunnen staan met de aarde, haar flora en fauna en al zo snel zien dat het klimaat naar de klote gaat. Ontzettend mooi!

A haunting tale of the realities the Sámi, like other Indigenous groups around the world, face in the presence of modernity, minority status and xenophobia. 

Title: Stolen
Author: Ann-Helén Laestadius
Series: Sapmitrilogin #1
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.25
Pub Date: January 31, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Quiet • Compelling • Cinematic

📖 S Y N O P S I S

It is winter, north of the Arctic Circle. A few hours of pale light is all the sun has to offer before the landscape is once more enveloped in complete darkness. This is Sápmi, land of the Sámi, Scandinavia’s Indigenous people.

Nine-year-old Elsa is the daughter of Sámi reindeer herders. Her community is under constant threat—from the Swedish population who don’t always value the Sámi way of life, from the government that wants to claim their land for mining, and from violent poachers who slaughter their reindeer for sport and for sale on the black market.

One morning, when Elsa goes skiing alone, she witnesses a man brutally killing her beloved reindeer calf. Elsa is terrified by what she sees. Fearing for her own life and for the lives of her family members, she remains silent.

Ten years pass, and Elsa is now trying to claim a role for herself in her community, where male elders expect young women to know their place. Meanwhile, the hostility toward the Sámi continues to escalate, and the police won’t do anything to protect them. When Elsa becomes the target of the man who killed her reindeer calf all those years ago, something inside of her breaks. The guilt, fear, and anger she’s been carrying since childhood come crashing over her, leading to a final catastrophic confrontation.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I selected Stolen as my February 2023 book of the month for my personal project, because it sounded like the ideal winter read and I knew I would learn something new. Unfortunately, I never got around to reading it until nearly a year later.

Told in three distinct sections, this novel is part coming-of-age story, part family saga, and part
ode to the Sámi people. Beautifully written in atmospheric tones, the pacing is slow, mirroring the traditional way of life, making it the perfect quiet winter read. I learned about Indigenous culture, but the author also opened my eyes to the discrimination inflicted on the Sámi people by both the general population, as well as, the police. It's another excellent portrait of the injustices and failings of systems put in place to protect the people. There is also a subtle commentary on the threat of climate change.

Elsa is a strong, independent female character, and I was along for her journey. I wanted her to succeed, and loved how was so sure of her hopes for her future. The internal debates she goes through in finding who she is, is an aspect I greatly appreciated getting.

Originally written in Swedish, the English translation is very well done. I never once felt like the emotional tone was lacking, and there is more explanations when needed to truly understand what the author is trying to say. If I didn't already know, I'd have never picked up that it was translated.

Stolen is based on the real lived experiences of the Sámi people and their reindeer herds, yet this is a fictionalized account. It was an uncomfortable read, containing gruesome detailed descriptions of animal cruelty and blatant injustice. But it was also an empowering, well-thought out story. I have recently learned it will be coming to Netflix in 2024, so I will be on the look out for that. There is also a follow up, published in 2023, which I am hoping will eventually be translated as well.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of Katherena Vermette
• readers who like translated works