The story of two Sámi families - Ristin and Ber-Joná in the 1910s and Lise in the 1970s - grappling to maintain their ways of life in the face of changing borders, displacement and forced loss of heritage.

Written in sparse verse, this did take me a little while to get into the swing of it, but it was a deeply moving book. Necessarily, much is conveyed with few words, and I found it most affecting on reflection - certain layers of the story were not always immediately obvious whilst actually reading it. It’s a rewarding story that lingers.

The sparseness of the writing suits the landscapes, but also effectively conveys the myriad losses suffered by Sámi over the past century - access to grazing lands and reindeer migration routes, connection to the land, identity, language, culture. I was particularly struck by a few lines about modern Sámi kids learning the language, but the diversity of dialects and accents of their grandparents, indicating where they are from and that should have been passed down, are missing - their teacher observes that their Sámi feels stilted.

Axelsson doesn’t hold the reader’s hand and verse format doesn’t allow detailed explanations anyway, but there’s enough there to read between the lines whenever an event, law or court case is mentioned without having to interrupt the flow of reading to look it up immediately to understand the story. The continued encroachment on Sámi lands for renewable energy projects is also touched on, raising questions around climate change and the necessary push for renewables but at a cost to whom…

Ædnan is very much a Sámi story, but also reflects the experiences of indigenous peoples around the world, particularly in terms of forcible loss of lands, language and culture. It’s impossible to read it in NZ and not consider parallels with the treatment of and attitudes towards Māori.

An affecting, sparsely written verse novel conveying the myriad losses suffered by Sámi over the past century, from land access to language and culture.