Kathrine Nedrejord

The Sami Problem

Sameproblemet

Marie has just become a mother for the first time. She lives in France, far away from her roots. When her áhkku – her mother’s mother – dies, she travels alone home to Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county, to attend the funeral.

On her way back to her hometown, she decides to write áhkku’s story. It quickly turns into a story about the women in her family, about how oppression has marked the lives of her great-grandmother, her grandmother, her mother and herself, and about how her Sami background has shaped her worldview.

The Sami Problem is an investigation into what it means to be a Sami, a woman, a mother, daughter and granddaughter. It is a powerful novel about Sami culture, language and identity, and a both furious and clear-eyed reckoning with oppression, discrimination and bigotry towards one of Europe’s major indigenous peoples.

‘Fearless and furious. Kathrine Nedrejord’s new novel is a Sami indictment against the Norwegian majority society’s oppression, invisibility, mockery, and racism […] Marie Engmo’s narrative voice is sometimes subdued, but just as often intense and furious […] With this novel, Kathrine Nedrejord once again demonstrates her insistent will to analyze the difficult issues surrounding victim and perpetrator. She convinces, both in language and temperament.’

Dagbladet, 6/6 stars

‘Powerful […] Kathrine Nedrejord puts her finger on a wound and presses so hard that the reader becomes both horrified and wiser. Nedrejord is also a fearless author […] The middle part stands out with a dazzling exposition of Sami identity’

Aftenposten
Photo: Fartein Rudjord

Kathrine Nedrejord (b.1987) is an author of both adult fiction, books for children/YA and theatre plays. She made her debut in 2010 with the novel Transit, which received glowing reviews. In 2019 her acclaimed novel Transformation was awarded the Havmann Prize. Its follow-up, Criminal and Punishment, was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2023.

Her books for children and young adults have earned several nominations for prestigious literary awards, among them the IBBY Honor list and two-time nominated for the Ministry of Culture’s Literary Prize. The German edition of the YA Sara’s Secret was awarded Book of the Month. Nedrejord was recently the house dramatist at the National Theatre in Oslo. She lives in France.

“Kathrine Nedrejord is an author who never shies away, and there is a steadfastness, a fearlessness, and an intellectual power in Nedrejord that can bring to mind the novels of Dag Solstad. Kathrine Nedrejord crushes conventions in her writing, and with The Sami Problem she has written a novel that could stand as a modern classic.”
From the Oktober Prize jury statement