- Imprint: Vintage
- ISBN: 9781529956320
- Length: 304 pages
- Price: £9.99
The Home of the Drowned
byElin Anna Labba, Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Translator)
Lisa Ridzén, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTHThe Home of the Drowned shines a light on Swedish colonial history. I felt this story bodily, as its three central women moved me between their resistance and adaptation - their anger and resignation - to land, finally, in a feeling of defencelessness. Elin Anna Labba's prose is like the rising waters of a dammed lake, slowly finding its way into every corner of my being. It is heart-achingly beautiful. The author is a master at conveying the importance of the individual in the fabric of the wider world. I can't recommend it enough
Financial TimesPowerful... explores memory, marginalisation and what happens when collective wisdom is washed away by modernity... One of the novel’s most delightful aspects is the way Labba conveys not just a Sámi way of life, but a Sámi perception of the world
Damian Le Bas, author of THE DROWNED PLACESWith astonishing descriptive deftness, Elin Anna Labba leads us to walk with her into an un-drowned past, and a European history which will to many of us be shockingly new. In this story of the struggle of a family of Sámi women, and the brutalisation of indigenous people by the machine of so-called progress, the great saga of humanity seems mystically encoded. We are shown what has been lost, what can still be saved, and the depth of inner strength that is mustered to strive against power when it can no longer see its own soul. 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, studded with the living language of a culture that has suffered much and refused to drown
ExpressenA sinuous, stunning novel – a lamentation that is also rich in razor-sharp, sensual details
Sveriges TelevisionSang in a dirty realism that smells of smoke, whitefish… As if written in water
Göteborgs-PostenMesmerising… beautiful in a way that is also painful
Upsala Nya TidningA magnificent debut
About Elin Anna Labba
ELIN ANNA LABBA is a Sámi writer and journalist. She has worked as an editor for Sámi magazines and as director of Tjállegoahte, the Sámi Writers’ Centre, which is dedicated to promoting Sámi literature. Her debut, The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi, was awarded the August Prize for Best Non-Fiction, along with several other prestigious awards. In 2024, Labba was appointed Honorary Doctor of Philosophy at Luleå University of Technology in recognition of her contribution to both literary and public discourse and for giving voice to communities shaped by historical and environmental change.
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All editions
- Hardback 2026
- Paperback 2027
- Ebook 2026
- Audio Download 2026