Meeting: February 12, 2026
We are on to a Finnish selection, The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen. We are meeting Thursday February 12 at the Nordic Center, 1 pm as usual.
Here are what some reviewers are saying:
Long-listed, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2023
Longlisted, Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2023
Longlisted, National Book Awards, 2023
An epic love story in the vein of Cold Mountain and The Great Circle, about a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle
In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sámi reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvár, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders—of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides—as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea.
Gorgeously written and sweeping in scope, Hanna Pylväinen’s The End of Drum-Time immerses listeners in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.
Happy reading,
Lise and Claudia