Aednan

Linnea Axelsson is a Sámi-Swedish writer born in the province of North Bothnia in Sweden. In 2009 she earned a Ph.D in art history from Umeå University. In 2018 she was awarded the August Prize for <i>Ædnan</i>. She lives in Stockholm Sweden. <p>In Northern Sámi the word?<i>Ædnan</i>?means the land the ground and the earth. In this majestic verse novel Linnea Axelsson chronicles the fates of two Indigenous Sámi families over a hundred years as they are expelled from their ancestral home giving powerful voice to a history under threat of erasure. <br><br>In the 1910s Ristin and Ber-Joná try to care for their infant twins while migrating their reindeer herd to their summer pasture. As a border is imposed between northernmost Sweden and Norway the family faces tragedy when it is forced to migrate south. <br><br>In the 1970s Lise - part of a new generation of Sámi grappling with questions of identity and inheritance - reflects on her traumatic childhood when she was placed in a nomad school to be stripped of her ancestors' language. Moving into the 2010s Lise's daughter Sandra seeks to reclaim her heritage becoming an activist fighting for reparations in a highly publicized land rights trial. <br><br>With grand scope and stunning crystalline language?<i>Ædnan</i>?weaves together a chorus of voices from across a century into a profound and moving epic of Sámi life.</p>