Aednan

Linnea Axelsson

Winner of the August Prize 2018, with sales of over 15 000 hardbacks

In Linnea Axelsson’s stunning novel-in-verse, she narrates the story of two indigenous Sámi families in northern Sweden, whose fate mirrors Sámi history from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

We walk with the struggling families as they herd reindeer towards an island in northern Norway, their summer pasture. None of them can imagine that soon enough the Norwegian border will be closed to them, that they will be forced from their home, and future generations will encounter altogether different challenges. Piece by piece, an emotional landscape emerges as the families’ lives are affected by Sweden’s colonial policy.

The Sámi people are the indigenous people of the north, who traditionally make their living from herding reindeer across huge distances, and whose lands span the far northern tips of Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia.

Ædnan is the traditional northern Sámi word for ’land’, ’ground’, or ’earth’.

Awards and Nominations

*August Prize for Fiction 2018*

Norrlands Literature Prize 2019

Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan’s Fiction Award 2018

Ordfront Award for Democracy 2018

Svenska Dagbladets Prize for Literature 2018

Nominated for Swedish Radio’s Lyrical Poetry Prize 2019

Nominated for the Eyvind Johnsson Prize 2019