Aednan
An Epic
Linnea Axelsson author Saskia Vogel translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pushkin Press
Published:25th Jan '24
Should be back in stock very soon
In Northern Sámi, the word Ædnan means the land, the ground, the earth. In this majestic verse novel, Linnea Axelsson chronicles the fates of two Indigenous Sámi families, telling of their struggle and persistence over a century of colonial displacement, loss and resistance. It begins with Ristin and Ber-Joná, who are trying to care for their troubled young sons while migrating their reindeer herd in northernmost Scandinavia during the 1910s. The coming of the Swedes brings new borders that lay waste to Sámi customs and migration paths - and mean devastating separation for this family. In the 1970s, Lise grapples with how she was forced to adapt to Swedish society, haunted by her time in a 'nomad school' where she was deprived of her ancestors' language and history. Lise's daughter, Sandra, seeks to reclaim that heritage, becoming an activist struggling for reparations from the Swedish state. As one generation succeeds another, their voices interweave and form a spellbinding hymn to lands and traditions lost and reclaimed. Written in sparse, glittering verse that flows like a current,?Ædnan is a profound and moving epic of Sámi life.
Crystalline... 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, author of 'There, There' *
Vividly captures the plight of the Sámi people... Lyrical and ambitious... Ædnan contains echoes of epic poems and Norse sagas but also feels contemporary and accessible... bold and original * Guardian *
Remarkable... Like the best epics, Aednan is a story not just of a people but also of people, full of sonorous power yet shot through with an undeniable intimacy... Extraordinary * Washington Post *
Mesmerising. A beautiful, poetic weaving of language, character and place... Evocative and heart-breaking -- Audrey Magee, author of 'The Colony'
Moves as gracefully as a waterfall... This unique novel beautifully conjures losses and transitions within the flickering shadows of language * Irish Times *
A soul-gripping and enthralling journey into what it feels like to be othered in your own land... Axelsson offers us a profound invitation into understanding what it means to be deeply intertwined with nature -- Lola Akinmade Åkerström, author of 'In Every Mirror She’s Black'
A sharp-edged tale in verse of colonial suppression, resistance, and survival * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *
Incredibly beautiful and magnificent... With Ædnan, Swedish literature has been enriched * Dagens Nyheter *
Not only a linguistic adventure, innovative and rooted in both traditions and renewal, but also a statement that we are bigger and freer than the borders that shut us out from each other... Remarkable and magnificent * Norrtelje Tidning *
Eagerly as with any page-turner, I rush through the century that Axelsson's poem encompasses * Svenska Dagbladet *
A work that is unlike anything else in contemporary Swedish literature. It is a family chronicle, a political history, an indictment - in verse, albeit a free one. An epic, quite simply... Axelsson boldly writes herself into a time-honoured tradition * Sydsvenskan *
Epic, but also intimate and powerful * Guardian, Best translated fiction of 2024 *
ISBN: 9781805331315
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
432 pages