Oct 29

Oct 29 The End of Drum-Time

Author: Hanna Pylväinen
Publisher: Henry Holt
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

It’s 1851 at the edge of the arctic circle, and things are changing quickly. The church outpost that Lars Levi, a fervent Lutheran minister, mans is a rugged, sparsely populated one. But as the zeal of his teachings mounts, so does the attendance at the weekly services he holds. The Sámi reindeer herders he’s been sent to minister to are skeptical of the Christian values—and strict rules—he preaches, but when Biettar, one of the Sami’s most respected herders, has a dramatic religious awakening on the shortest day of the year, more and more of the Sámi people become ready to let their long-held traditions and beliefs give way to new ones. Biettar’s new commitment to Lars and his teachings means that Biettar’s son, Ivvár, is left to tend the family’s reindeer herd alone, an increasingly impossible task.

Meanwhile, Lars’s daughter, Willa, has always been the picture of obedience, until a chance encounter with Ivvár leads to an infatuation that gradually becomes something more. When a catastrophic illness threatens the life of her young brother, everything she’s ever believed is called into question, making her feel reckless—and free—in a way she’s never been before.

Gorgeously written and stunning in scope, The End of Drum-Time is both a powerful immersion into a rich and sometimes forgotten culture and a celebration of a beautiful, ancient way of life. It masterfully weaves together the complex geopolitics and rich tradition of nineteenth-century Scandinavia; brings to life a people caught between an old way of life and the new; and asks how what we believe shapes the course of our lives.

TL;DR Review

Quiet, immersive, and culturally rich, Drum-Time gives us a heartbreaking look at the intersections of both modernity and tradition and faith and identity.

For you if: You like to read well-researched, moving, literary historical fiction.

Full Review

I would probably never have picked up The End of Drum-Time if it hadn’t been named a finalist for the National Book Award, but I have to admit I liked it more than I expected to. Quiet, immersive, and culturally rich, Drum-Time gives us a heartbreaking look at the intersections of both modernity and tradition and faith and identity.

The book takes place in the mid-19th century in northern Sweeden, at the edge of the Arctic Circle. In one small town, Nordic Christians are interfering more and more with the indigenous Sami people’s way of life. At the center of the story is a young couple who fall for each other (Willa, daughter of the intense local pastor named “Mad Lars”; and Ivvar, son of an alcoholic reindeer herder recently “saved” by Mad Lars), but there are also many other characters and a whole web of relationships spun between them, making this much more than a romance.

By far, the strength of this book is in its prose. Pylväinen’s sentences are absolutely gorgeous. It matches well with the slow, detailed pace of the book, which is also a strength — although it does occasionally turn against it. There were several key plot moments where I felt the pace naturally want to pick up, but then it seemed like Pylväinen intentionally slowed things down by getting really in the weeds. For me, that broke the momentum of the book enough times that it became a noticeable pattern and my primary qualm.

All in all, though, a solid read. Those who like to read well-researched, moving, literary historical fiction will like this one.