The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023--San Antonio

The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen is a fascinating novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award this year.  It takes place in Lappland and is the story of the end of a lifestyle that had existed for centuries--ended by a combination of factors including governments deciding to close borders that had allowed natural migration for the Sami people and their reindeer, governments deciding to provide settlers with free land within the natural seasonal migration routes of reindeer, and conservative Christian missionaries supported by the government-sanctioned church enforcing lifestyle changes (due to their belief that only their religion was right and that native non-Christian people should be forcefully converted to it while taking advantage of them in very non-Christian ways).  It reminds me a bit of what has happened in so many places such as North and South America, Hawaii, etc.  The book follows the lives of a number of Sami family groups as all of these changes are occurring and also the lives of members of one extended family of religious leaders.  Traditions of the local area are being suppressed while the incoming settlers and ministers are trying to uphold their own long-held traditions in this land where they are the newcomers.  The description of the Sami people's lives is told in such detail that the reader is enlightened while also suffering along with them as the story spirals downward toward tragedy.  It's a sad story, yet so enlightening.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.