“The reindeer were biekka oapmi, belonging to the wind.”
Ann- Helén Laestadius’s Stolen (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Scribner 2023 – originally published by Romanus & Selling in 2021) came to my attention in January when Fredrick Backman recommended it. I made a mental note to check it out and promptly forgot. This summer, Backman mentioned it again. This time I didn’t forget, and I purchased the trade paperback with the beautiful wintry spine. It made my “ten before the end” list, and while this book is likely best read with a blanket of snow on the ground and a brutal chill in the air, I live in North Carolina. Despite lacking in snow, Stolen is one of my top reads of 2023.
The novel opens with nine-year-old Elsa, the daughter of a Sámi reindeer herder, skiing down to the corral by herself. She wanted to surprise the rest of her family by having the herd fed by the time they arrived. Instead, she stumbles onto a crime; a young man from the neighboring village, a man she knows, has just murdered a calf, her calf with her mark. He cuts off the calf’s ear to remove evidence of the mark and is planning on taking the calf when he sees Elsa. He threatens her and her family before fleeing. Elsa pockets the dropped ear of her beloved reindeer, Nastegallu, and never tells.
Ten years later, the moment at the corral and the secret she’d kept still haunts her. There have been well over a hundred police reports about reindeer being slaughtered, but the police view this attack on the Sami livelihood as “theft of property” and not a priority – each case is closed without charges. But Elsa isn’t 9 anymore. She begins to speak out, facing threats and slurs and more dead reindeer. Despite being a woman, she will stand next to the men to defend her herd, her family, and her way of life. And she will use the voice that refused to name the culprit when she was nine.
When I say this feels like Beartown you may think me crazy, but it does. And if you loved Benji, you’ll love Lasse. And this novel will claim your heart and your tears, especially the ending.
Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 