Hanna Pylvainen · 2023 · overland

Hanna Pylvainen's 2023 novel, a finalist for the National Book Award. In 1851, in a remote Sami village in the far north of Scandinavia, a Lutheran revivalist known as Mad Lasse labours to convert the reindeer herders, and his daughter Willa falls for the young herder Ivvar. When the herd must move, Willa abandons the mission and follows the Sami on their gruelling annual migration north to the sea. The route crosses the Arctic fells from the inland church to the Norwegian coast.

1. 1
   Karesuando

   At the mission village on the frozen tundra, the preacher Mad Lasse strives to save Sami souls, while his sheltered daughter Willa is drawn to the herder Ivvar and his dwindling reindeer.

2. 2
   The Fells

   When the season turns and the herd must move, Willa leaves the church behind and joins the Sami driving the reindeer northwest over the high Arctic fells.

3. 3
   The Sea

   Across the border into Norway and down to the summer pastures by the sea, the migration that has no place for borders or missions, and from which Willa cannot simply go home.