Description

Shortlisted for the National Book Award

A story of forbidden love and fugitive faith in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle

‘Transports readers deep into an unfamiliar world, yet with familiar conflicts and desires. I was absorbed and changed. Absolutely beautiful’ Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring

In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sami reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvar, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea.

Gorgeously written and sweeping in scope, Hanna Pylvainen’s The End of Drum-Time immerses readers in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.

Publisher Review

'Transports readers deep into an unfamiliar world, yet with familiar conflicts and desires. I was absorbed and changed. Absolutely beautiful' - Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring 'The End of Drum-Time is a novel like no other. It is as much a historical epic as it is an intimate love story as much a vast cultural record as it is a detailed study of a person's soul. It is infinitely rich and rewarding. In these pages, Hanna Pylvainen tells a story of love, faith, reindeer herding, and human failing. She has written a masterpiece' - Julia Phillips, author of the National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth 'One of the most unique voices in American literature, Hanna Pylvainen occupies a space shared by the Scandinavian writers Kerstin Ekman, Tove Jansson, and, beyond that, 19th century masters. The End of Drum-Time brings the readers to a recent past, a distant land, and proves that the complexity of human nature is as relevant and timeless as the ancient landscape. A triumph from the first page to the last!' - Yiyun Li 'The End of Drum-Time explores some of the most complex themes in literature in some of the most gorgeous prose imaginable. Hanna Pylvainen's novel of cultural collision in the far north is an extraordinary feat of research and imagination by an author who reminds you with every page what fiction can accomplish' - Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Present