Stolen

There are no easy answers in this beautiful book about the struggle to preserve the Sami way of life in the Arctic region of Sweden. The book is rich in sensory detail—we can feel the cold, the rub of fabric in the gakti and other traditional garments. We get to follow the main character, Elsa, from girlhood to becoming a strong young woman.

This excellent book explores how children and adults are injured and twisted when confronted by daily acts of hatred and discrimination by people they must live with. I appreciated the insight this book delivers into the lives of modern Sami reindeer herders, but it is much more than that. The authors explore how a child copes, how men and women cope, and how they fail to cope, with constant pressure from their neighbors, school peers & people of authority who neither understand nor respect their very existence. It is a dark and troubling exploration of the long-term effects of hatred. Some comments call this, in part, a "coming of age" story but I did not find it to be that at all, at least not in the traditional literary sense. It was sometimes difficult to read and I had to put it down out of fear for the characters. Even the strong characters are weakened to breaking by the pressures.

This is a novel about the Sami in Sweden in the current time. We hear about the abuses in history, but it is still happening. Very sad book. But as my ancestors are Sami, it was helpful to know how life is for them now.

Elsa, a nine-year-old Sámi girl, makes her way to her family's corral one morning only to see her favorite calf murdered by a local man, who then threatens her life. Consumed by the shock of seeing the slaughter and the fear for her own life, she remains silent. Her family submits yet another report to the police, who do nothing despite the hundreds of slaughtered reindeer the Sámi have reported to them. Elsa and her community continue to grapple with these incidents of "stolen" reindeer for another decade, until Elsa decides that enough is enough and starts pushing for action.This book is perfect. I don't know precisely how to explain how lovely the characters are and how deep the sense of community runs through this book. The main character is Elsa, but you become connected to her brother, her grandmother, her neighbors, and the reindeer collective as a whole. Like everyone in the story, I was shocked by what happened at the end of part one, and the way the book wrapped up gave me chills. I was deeply moved by this story, knowing that everything in it is based on the true experiences of the indigenous Sámi population of Sweden, and I hope that all readers grow as attached to this narrative and these characters as I did.Just a beautiful book — I will read anything else by Ann-Helén Laestadius that I can get my English-speaking hands on!

I agree with other reviewers that this is an important book in that it gives insight into a culture whose land has been appropriated and whose people and way of life have been abused by the wider population. But that doesn't make it great literature. This is the author's first adult novel, but it reads like YA literature, which is what she has written before. It is tedious to read; there is a 10-year gap between Elsa at 9 and 19 during which nothing much has changed. The evil Robert is a standard bogeyman with no nuance. The mothers also do not grow except for Elsa's mother, who starts going to an aerobic class and makes her bedroom into her own little Eden with a pink bedspread so she can escape the macho traditions of gender roles. Her aunt Hannah falls into despair after her brother's suicide and never recovers, and we keep visiting her in her despair. Elsa's brother Mattias is damaged goods from start to finish. I'd like to learn more about the Sami culture. I hope the author's next book is more nuanced, perhaps with the help of an editor who can push her to go beyond her comfortable envelope as a writer.

This was obviously written for the YA market, yet I was compelled to read through to the end. Knowing nothing about the Sami except that they were ‘reindeer people,’ forced me to look up words often, and propelled me into reading a nonfiction about the Sami. I would have given it five stars, except the story was sometimes confusing about who was who.

A fascinating journey into the lives of an indigenous group of people who are struggling to maintain their dignity and way of life. The book is full of suspense and engaging characters, but even more importantly, it teaches the reader about a people who are struggling to hold on to their way of life amidst bigotry and hate. In some ways, this book reminds me of one of my all time favorite novels : Things Fall Apart (by Chinua Achebe).

Today I finished Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius. It is not a book I would have typically chosen, but I saw it reviewed somewhere; no idea where now, and I purchased it because it piqued my interest. It's about a young Sami girl who witnesses her reindeer calf killed as a child and follows how that affected her into womanhood. It is based on actual events.This novel illustrates the discrimination against the Sami and their way of life as reindeer herders. They face hatred from non-Sami people in their village who resort to killing and torturing the reindeer the Sami depend on to survive. Unfortunately, the local police don't investigate these incidents, seeing them as minor theft, not understanding or perhaps not caring about the Sami's deep connection to their reindeer.

A chillingly beautiful novel that deals with societal prejudices in Sweden against the Sami indigenous peoples. I was struck by the similarities between how the Sami people were treated in Sweden and how Canada's first nations persons are also treated.Amazingly beautiful scenes of nature and the raw and rough nature of living in Sweden's north.This book deals with tough but honest topics such as prejudices, rural living, suicide, loneliness, power struggles between male and female characters, racism, first nations mistreatment, wealth and poverty, and more.The writing is beautiful and I found the scenes easily seen through the mind's eye. On the other hand, the writing of animal torture and their mutilation may turn off sensitive readers so be aware of that prior to reading!I received an advance copy of the book through NetGalley and the publisher, but my review is my honest and uninfluenced opinion. Thank you to the author Ann-Helen Laestadius for such a tough but touching work.

The story gives a great insight into the life of the Sami and the prejudice they face. Seen through the eyes of a young girl and the strong young woman she becomes, the book follows Elsa and the events that make the reindeer herders' lives difficult.The book moves through these events seamlessly, bringing in different characters to develop the story. Some descriptions of animal cruelty and torture make for unpleasant reading but are necessary to establish the difficulties the Sami face. The story builds in intensity leading to a heartwarming conclusion.

In what is often seen as the model example of societal structure, it surprises many to find that Scandinavia is still coming to terms with embedded ethnic discrimination of the Sámi population. While there have been some improvements in recent years, the land these nomadic people have historically called home is coming under increasing pressure. Their land, language and culture are under constant threat.It’s against this backdrop that Swedish Sámi author Ann-Helén Laestadius sets her real-life-based coming-of-age novel, Stolen.The picturesque snowy landscape of northern Sweden seems a peaceful, idyllic backdrop for a childhood, but when nine-year-old Elsa witnesses the brutal murder of her pet reindeer Nástegallu it’s not only the reindeer that is taken but Elsa’s innocence as well. At that tender young age, Elsa vows revenge and swears she will, in turn, kill the reindeer slayer one day.This killing isn’t some isolated incident; however, the Sámi community faces a constant stream of threats, intimidation, and further killings of their precious herd. It is an age-old tale of misunderstanding and mistrust between communities, a world where the local Swedish community mistrusts those who speak the Sámi language, where the native dress can be seen as a provocation rather than a proud cultural tradition. Even within the Sámi community itself, there’s mistrust of those who have married into the community, despite their efforts to integrate.It makes for a powder keg of emotions waiting to explode but, as the years pass, Elsa bides her time, the memory of the reindeer killing remains a strong formative influence in her life and, many years later, the death of another loved one causes yet more trauma and leads to a climatic thriller.Laestadius draws on the rich culture of the Sámi community to infuse the work with a real humanity. Sámi dress, culture, and the challenges they face, both within their community and with wider Scandinavian culture, are craftly detailed through the lens of 9-year-old Elsa. Sámi language words are left untranslated to give further authenticity to the piece.As Stolen moves on a decade the piece becomes, understandably, darker but this is more than a mere tale of revenge, Laestadius never justifies the actions on either side, the complex moral maze of what is justifiable revenge or when revenge is just as abhorrent as the original act is an unresolved question.There’s a poetic style to Stolen, sometimes at odds with the darkness of the subject being described, perhaps down to Laestadius‘ background writing Young Adult novels and the initial chapters do occasionally seem to meander. As Stolen gets into its stride, that naivety gives way, and we get a compelling and chilling insight into the challenges this fascinating community faces all set against a page-turner thriller in the very best Nordic Noir tradition.

It made you feel like you were there with Elsa 💜

I absolutely loved this novel and the brittle, claustrophobic world it evokes. It's a gripping and beautifully written story about a minority Sámi family trying to continue in their traditional reindeer-herding life in a small but modern, mixed community in Sweden, just north of the Arctic Circle.It's a dark tale with some cruel twists, but there is hope here and, against all odds, Stolen has a big heart.While out skiing on her own as a nine-year-old girl, central character Elsa accidentally stumbles on a neighbour butchering her favourite reindeer calf in the wilderness.Terrified into silence, the youngster hides away the terrible secret as the years pass and her community is subjected to increasing prejudice and violence.Tensions within the Sámi community take a toll on Elsa too, and in a society where women are expected to know their place, our protagonist struggles to find it within herself to fight for justice.I started to read faster and faster as I neared the end of the novel, wondering how it all might be resolved and praying it wouldn't be another dark, grinding, pessimistic, Scandi-noir shrug of the shoulders-type finale. It wasn't and I wasn't disappointed.The English translation is written in gripping, often poetic prose, and is a real tribute to the skills of the translator. A wonderful read!