Stolen - Ann-Helén Laestadius

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

I read this because my friend Fredrik Backman recommended it as a great Swedish book recently translated into English, and I trust him. It revolves around a community of Sami people, who are an Indigenous tribe of reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia that face a lot of oppression. The main character is Elsa, a young Sami girl who witnesses her reindeer getting killed, and how it changes her life as she has to face the attitudes of others toward her people and the unfairness of how they're treated as their culture slowly disappears.

I knew nothing about the Sami before this, so I learned a lot. It was fascinating to me that this tribe is facing discrimination for being Indigenous, even though they're white like other Swedes, but they have their own language, clothing, and culture. It was also frustrating to see how they're mistreated, and how others poaching their reindeer was brushed off like it was nothing. It's a beautiful book about tradition and the effects of fear, as well as the courage it takes to defend your way of life in a modernizing world. But also it was set mostly in winter in the north and living there sounded so terrible it was almost unbearable.