The Home of the Drowned

When their summer settlement is flooded without warning, a family of S�mi women must fight for their way of life in a changing world, in this powerful, haunting novel. 'Heartachingly beautiful' Lisa Ridz�n, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTHEvery summer, Ing�, her mother R�vdn�, and her Aunt Anne travel west to their village on the lake. But the summer Ing� is thirteen, they arrive to find their home and possessions have disappeared under water, the land flooded by a dam built to supply hydropower to a society that has continually stolen from them. The Home of the Drowned follows these women's fortunes over forty years - from 1942 to 1982 - as the water their people have lived near for centuries is transformed into a menacing force that threatens all they hold dear. Defying the authorities, R�vdn� decides to build a house on the lake to replace what was lost, becoming an unlikely activist. Meanwhile, Anne's health is in decline, and a concerned Ing� merely longs to live like everyone else - an impossible wish when the Swedish state is relentlessly drowning her world. Elin Anna Labba's debut novel brings S�mi history to the fore, revealing connections between land, water and people that hauntingly reverberate with the question: what is it that makes a home?Translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel'In this story of the struggle of a family of S�mi women... the great saga of humanity seems mystically encoded. . .With the heft of myth and the urgency of activism, this book is a clear-eyed portal into a world of wonder, injustice, resilience, and hope' Damian Le Bas, author of THE DROWNED PLACES