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Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller
Unavailable
Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller
Unavailable
Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller
Audiobook15 hours

Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller

Written by Olivier Truc

Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The international award-winning, bestselling phenomenon, now available in English for the first time.

Tomorrow, the sun will rise for the first time in 40 days. Thirty minutes of daylight will herald the end of the polar night in Kautokeino, a small village in northern Norway, home to the indigenous Sami people.

But in the last hours of darkness, a precious artifact is stolen: an ancient Sami drum. The most important piece in the museum's collection, it was due to go on tour with a UN exhibition in a few short weeks.

Hours later, a man is murdered. Mattis, one of the last Sami reindeer herders, is found dead in his gumpy.

Are the two crimes connected? In a town fraught with tension--between the indigenous Samis fighting to keep their culture alive, the ultra-Lutheran Scandinavian colonists concerned with propagating their own religion, and the greedy geologists eager to mine the region's ore deposits--it falls to two local police officers to solve the crimes. Klemet Nango, an experienced Sami officer, and Nina Nansen, his much younger partner from the south of Norway, must find the perpetrators before it's too late...

THIS EDITION INCLUDES A READING GROUP GUIDE
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 18, 2014
ISBN9781478983002
Unavailable
Forty Days Without Shadow: An Arctic Thriller

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Reviews for Forty Days Without Shadow

Rating: 4.035211267605634 out of 5 stars
4/5

71 ratings6 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book about reindeer herders in Lapland was fascinating! A very interesting story about the tensions between traditional values and lifestyles in a contemporary financial economy driven world. Mystery, drama and insight into complex characters and how their many facets are missed by persons outside Lap culture. I’ll definitely read it again!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An excellent read, giving insight into a unique and different culture! Well developed characters with a deep and probing plot, I enjoyed every word!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The tundra descriptions were vivid enough to consider a sweater. The native characters were believable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Most interesting book ive read in a long time. I wish there was a series. Deeply moving and beautiful stories of the past and present in indigenous cultures where we fit in a different world.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating novel concerning the aboriginal Lapps or Sami, as they call themselves. They live in Lapland, the harsh, unforgiving tundra encompassing parts or northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and even Russia. A ancient shamanistic drum is stolen from a museum, then the death of a failed, alcoholic Sami reindeer herdsman follows. Two "Reindeer Police" partners, Nina, a rookie fresh out of police academy, and the experienced Sami Klemet set out to solve this double mystery. Are these two incidents tied together as Nina feels and does a legend about a gold seam and a curse have anything to do with them? Why is the drum so important and what secrets does the drum hold, besides being an unusual relic of a bygone time? The novel gave us an insight into Sami life both of today and the traditional lifestyle, consisting of reindeer breeding. The character Aslak exemplifies tradition, not wanting to succumb to any modernism. A crooked policeman, a crooked farmer/city councilor and French geologist obsessed with finding the truth of the legend add spice to the story.Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reindeer herders. Now, there’s a term you don’t hear every day. In Kautokeino, a village in central Lapland, there are still reindeer herders and Reindeer Police to keep peace between the herders and monitor how many reindeer are kept in each herd. The herders are Sámis who are an indigenous people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi. Some herders have brought their profession into modern day, even providing reindeer products and souvenirs to sightseers. But doing so costs more money and causes the herder to necessarily increase his herd. Aslak is different. He has a small herd and works with them much the same way it was generations ago. It is enough to provide for him and his wife in their tent in the wilderness. Mattis was more like Aslak until booze took over his brain. Then his herds became weak and wondered into other herds. It was always an issue in the spring for the Reindeer Police to negotiate and separate the herds.Then, a Sámi drum was stolen from the museum. It was generations old. It was not only rare, but it was rumored to provide directions to a massive gold site. Soon thereafter, Mattis was found murdered. The Reindeer Police feel that the two incidents are connected. Rolf Brattsen, the Deputy Superintendent, insisted they should be treated as two separate incidents. Klemet Nango and Nina Nansen head up the investigation by the Reindeer Police, but they need to default to Brattsen and he eventually tells them to back off. Brattsen does not care for the Sámis nor their history.This is Oliver Truc’s debut novel, and the storyline is truly fascinating. The prologue threw me a bit; I was looking for more of a tie in to it. Still it sets the reader up for a remarkable journey. I loved the characters of Klemet and Nina. At first they were at odds with each other. Klemet is a Sámi; Nina was a newcomer but a quick learner. It was very realistic to see these two eventually drawing together with respect for each other. It is not a love story, but the reader will fall in love with the people and even with this harsh and unforgiving locale. I rated Forty Days Without Shadow at 4 out of 5.

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