När vi var samer

For decades a sealed box sat in the grandfather's house and nobody was allowed to touch it. When he dies, the family looks inside and finds documents about reindeer ownership, correspondence with the authorities in Västerbotten and pictures from the herding. They are descendants of Forest Sámi from the Malå area. Why was it hidden, and why has so much been forgotten? In comic-book form, the author sets off in middle age to recover that lost past, combining his own search for identity with the history of the Sámi, from the growth of Sápmi in the far north to Swedish colonisation and forced assimilation.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

344 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Historical, Autofiction (assigned by AI)

Set in

Sweden

First published

2021 by Galago

Author's age

48 when first published

ISBN

9789177751519 (original)