Kathrine Nedrejord - Selected Title Author

What inspired you to write this book?

A few years ago, I wrote a children’s book called Sami Bastard! (original title: Lappjævel!) about the time when Sami children were sent to boarding schools to become Norwegian. I still travel around Norway and abroad presenting the book, which is set in the 1950s, and when we discuss it people nearly always say “It’s good that it’s not like that anymore!” I think I’ve even said it myself, feeling that I’m lying; that I’m painting a much rosier picture than how things really are.
I grew up in the nineties and quickly learned that being Sami wasn’t much fun. As a teenager in the 2000s I learned the same thing. As an adult, I’ve seen how we are referred to in the media or left out of Norway’s history when it’s being told. In recent years, conflicts around natural resources – where the state has given away reindeer grazing areas to foreign investors – have also caused an increase in hatred and estrangement of Sami people. So I just wanted to write a story that stretched from the time prior to when Sami Bastard! was set until the present day. I want to show what being Sami in Norway is like. For better or worse.

How is your book different from other books in this area?

There have been lots of good Sami-related novels in recent years, which I’m very happy about! I hope this Sami-wave continues for the foreseeable future! The Sami Problem differs from the other novels out there in that it alternates between a story about four generations of Sami women, and a reflection on a bigger story involving the Sami people as a whole and the Norwegian state. Its protagonist, Marie Engmo, among other things tries explaining to her daughter why, in Norway, it is more difficult to be born Sami than Norwegian. I tried to write intimately about specific people like Marie Engmo, her mother and her grandmother, and about the wider society that affects them, not only at school and at work, but in their love life.
Occasionally The Sami Problem is also quite an angry novel. I come from a country where showing anger in public should be avoided. It can spoil the nice atmosphere. Now I live in a country, France, where rage against political injustice is less taboo. And I notice how that rage can often be constructive and lead to positive change. Perhaps both Marie Engmo and I hope that something good will come from venting our frustration in a literary manner.

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