The Home of the Drowned
The International Prizewinner
Published on 21. May 2026
304 pages
978-1-5299-5631-3 (ISBN)
Description
When their summer settlement is flooded without warning, a family of Sami women must fight for their way of life in a changing world, in this powerful, haunting novel.
'Heartachingly beautiful' Lisa Ridzen, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH
'[An] intimate story of infuriating discrimination' Guardian
Every summer, Inga, her mother Ravdna, and her Aunt Anne travel west to their village on the lake. But the summer Inga is thirteen, they arrive to find their home and possessions have disappeared under water, the land flooded by a dam built to supply hydropower to a society that has continually stolen from them.
The Home of the Drowned follows these women's fortunes over forty years - from 1942 to 1982 - as the water their people have lived near for centuries is transformed into a menacing force that threatens all they hold dear.
Defying the authorities, Ravdna decides to build a house on the lake to replace what was lost, becoming an unlikely activist. Meanwhile, Anne's health is in decline, and a concerned Inga merely longs to live like everyone else - an impossible wish when the Swedish state is relentlessly drowning her world.
Elin Anna Labba's debut novel brings Sami history to the fore, revealing connections between land, water and people that hauntingly reverberate with the question: what is it that makes a home?
Translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
'Powerful... explores memory, marginalisation and what happens when collective wisdom is washed away' Financial Times
'In this story of the struggle of a family of Sami women... the great saga of humanity seems mystically encoded. . .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' Damian Le Bas, author of THE DROWNED PLACES
'Heartachingly beautiful' Lisa Ridzen, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH
'[An] intimate story of infuriating discrimination' Guardian
Every summer, Inga, her mother Ravdna, and her Aunt Anne travel west to their village on the lake. But the summer Inga is thirteen, they arrive to find their home and possessions have disappeared under water, the land flooded by a dam built to supply hydropower to a society that has continually stolen from them.
The Home of the Drowned follows these women's fortunes over forty years - from 1942 to 1982 - as the water their people have lived near for centuries is transformed into a menacing force that threatens all they hold dear.
Defying the authorities, Ravdna decides to build a house on the lake to replace what was lost, becoming an unlikely activist. Meanwhile, Anne's health is in decline, and a concerned Inga merely longs to live like everyone else - an impossible wish when the Swedish state is relentlessly drowning her world.
Elin Anna Labba's debut novel brings Sami history to the fore, revealing connections between land, water and people that hauntingly reverberate with the question: what is it that makes a home?
Translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel
'Powerful... explores memory, marginalisation and what happens when collective wisdom is washed away' Financial Times
'In this story of the struggle of a family of Sami women... the great saga of humanity seems mystically encoded. . .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' Damian Le Bas, author of THE DROWNED PLACES
Reviews / Votes
The 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 -- Lisa Ridzen, author of WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH Powerful... 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 Sami way of life, but a Sami perception of the world * Financial Times * With 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 Sami 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 -- Damian Le Bas, author of THE DROWNED PLACES A sinuous, stunning novel - a lamentation that is also rich in razor-sharp, sensual details * Expressen * Sang in a dirty realism that smells of smoke, whitefish... As if written in water * Sveriges Television * Mesmerising... beautiful in a way that is also painful * Goeteborgs-Posten * A magnificent debut * Upsala Nya Tidning *More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Edition type
New edition
File size
0,76 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-5631-3 (9781529956313)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Persons
Elin Anna Labba (Author)
ELIN ANNA LABBA is a Sami writer and journalist. She has worked as an editor for Sami magazines and as director of Tjallegoahte, the Sami Writers' Centre, which is dedicated to promoting Sami literature. Her debut, The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami, 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 Lulea 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.
Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Translator)
ELIZABETH CLARK WESSEL is a poet and translator. Originally from rural Nebraska, she now lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
ELIN ANNA LABBA is a Sami writer and journalist. She has worked as an editor for Sami magazines and as director of Tjallegoahte, the Sami Writers' Centre, which is dedicated to promoting Sami literature. Her debut, The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami, 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 Lulea 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.
Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Translator)
ELIZABETH CLARK WESSEL is a poet and translator. Originally from rural Nebraska, she now lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
