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Title details for Aednan by Linnea Axelsson - Available

Aednan

An Epic

by Linnea Axelsson
Saskia Vogel
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • The winner of Sweden’s most prestigious literary award makes her American debut with an epic, multigenerational novel-in-verse about two Sámi families and their quest to stay together across a century of migration, violence, and colonial trauma.

“Crystalline prose that reads like poetry and myth at once. There are intricate layers of beauty and meaning here in sparse clusters across a vast new landscape as I’ve never read before. The music of this book is old, and it is new, and it is old.”—Tommy Orange, bestselling author of There, There and Wandering Stars
In Northern Sámi, the word Ædnan means the land, the earth, and my mother. These are all crucial forces within the lives of the Indigenous families that animate this groundbreaking book: an astonishing verse novel that chronicles a hundred years of change: a book that will one day stand alongside Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter as an essential Scandinavian epic.
The tale begins in the 1910s, as Ristin and her family migrate their herd of reindeer to summer grounds. Along the way, forced to separate due to the newly formed border between Sweden and Norway, Ristin loses one of her sons in the aftermath of an accident, a grief that will ripple across the rest of the book. In the wake of this tragedy, Ristin struggles to manage what’s left of her family and her community.
In the 1970s, Lise, as part of a new generation of Sámi grappling with questions of identity and inheritance, reflects on her traumatic childhood, when she was forced to leave her parents and was placed in a Nomad School to be stripped of the language of her ancestors. Finally, in the 2010s we meet Lise’s daughter, Sandra, an embodiment of Indigenous resilience, an activist fighting for reparations in a highly publicized land rights trial, in a time when the Sámi language is all but lost.
Weaving together the voices of half a dozen characters, from elders to young people unsure of their heritage, Axelsson has created a moving family saga around the consequences of colonial settlement. Ædnan is a powerful reminder of how durable language can be, even when it is borrowed, especially when it has to hold what no longer remains. “I was the weight / in the stone you brought / back from the coast // to place on / my grave,” one character says to another from beyond the grave. “And I flew above / the boat calling / to you all: // There will be rain / there will be rain.”

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 9, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593788660
      • File size: 81233 KB
      • Duration: 02:49:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This epic novel in verse is set in the Northern Sami lands of Scandinavia above the Arctic Circle. Angela Dawe employs deliberate pacing and pauses, along with a dreamy tone. Her delivery style results in a faithful translation of the poetic blank spaces throughout the original text, which suggest the quietness of the landscape and the erasing of the Sami reindeer herders' culture. The novel follows three generations of Sami from 1913, after the borders between Norway and Sweden were instituted, through the forced settlement of traditionally nomadic families and the damming of rivers that flooded their herding routes, to the cultural rebirth among younger Sami today. It's a treat on audio--a story with a poetic soul that is accessible and profoundly important. A.B. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 18, 2024
      Sámi Swedish writer Axelsson makes her memorable American debut with a verse novel that spans generations of two Sámi families, addressing themes of migration and colonial suffering through short-lined, atmospheric poems. The epigraphs of these untitled, numbered entries situate the reader. The opener, “Night camp at Lake Gobmejávri, near to where Sweden, Finland, and Norway meet. Early spring 1913,” paints a scenic, ruminative portrait that is characteristic of Axelsson: “A rangeland runs/ from the forest snow to/ the windswept shore// There my herd scrapes/ and leads us/ land to land/ prying me from/ your arms// Alone / among the lichen.” She captures domestic moments with the same eye, providing glimpses into private settings: “In the morning/ we wake early/ drink strong coffee// Hear Uncle Ernst/ treading around in/ the apartment below us// Before he turns/ the key/ tramps into the stairwell// Then he knocks awhile/ on our door// Some article in Flamman/ has probably upset him// and now he needs to/ discuss it// But we don’t/ want to be home// we disappear/ under the covers.” Spanning 100 years, this sensitive, beautiful, quietly rendered epic tells an impactful tale of community and survival.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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