Thank you Scribner Books #partner, for the advanced copy of Punished in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Scribner Books
Published: February 4, 2025 (first published January 2023)
Summary:
From the internationally bestselling author of the “extraordinary” (Fredrik Backman) novel Stolen comes a harrowing story—inspired by true events—of five Indigenous children forced to attend a government-run boarding school in 1950s Sweden, revealing the emotional scars they carry thirty years later.
In the 1950s near the Arctic Circle, seven-year-olds Jon-Ante, Else-Maj, Nilsa, Marge, and Anne-Risten are taken from their families. As children of Sámi reindeer herders, the Swedish state has mandated they attend a “nomad school” where they are forbidden to speak their native language. As the children visit home only sporadically, their parents know little about the abuse they face, much of it at the hands of the housemother, Rita. Those who dare to speak up are silenced.
Thirty years later, the five children have chosen different paths to cope with the past. Else-Maj holds strong in her Sámi identity but has turned to religion for comfort, while Anne-Risten now goes by Anne to hide her heritage from friends. Nilsa herds reindeer like his father but harbors a lot of anger, and Jon-Ante struggles with traumatic memories from the school. Then there’s Marge, who is about to adopt a daughter from Colombia, but can’t help questioning if it’s right to take a child from her homeland.
Then suddenly, housemother Rita reappears. Now an old, frail woman claiming to have God on her side, she acts like nothing ever happened. But the five former students have neither forgotten nor forgiven her. As the narrative shifts between each of their perspectives, the novel If you had the chance to punish the person who hurt you as a child, would you?
Based on the author’s family story, Punished is a searing novel about loss, memory, cultural erasure, and community that vibrates with righteous rage over one nation’s greatest betrayals of its native people.
My thoughts:
After reading, and loving, the first book in this series, Stolen, I knew I had to continue with the next book and even though it’s a difficult read, I found myself once again completely immersed in this author’s writing. And yet again, we have a story based on real-life events, this time coming from the author’s own family.
When I read the synopsis of this book, I remember getting Five Little Indian vibes (by Michelle Good) and that definitely held true to an extent. This is a story about five Sami children who are sent, not willingly I might add, to a nomad school. There they are unable to speak their native language and basically stripped of their cultural identity. The housemother is unkind, often abusing them both physically and emotionally. Thirty years later, we meet them all in adulthood and see the impact this has had on them.
This is such a powerful, thought-provoking read. It’s definitely one you need to take your time with because it’s heavy, it weighs on you and you will be hard-pressed not to feel all the emotions. This is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish reading. It’s timely, it’s hard-hitting and it’s an important read. I know there is at least one more book in this series and I really hope it is translated into English soon!
Books in this series:
- Stolen
- Punished
- ??
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