I sat down the other evening to read a slender book of enjoyably spooky stories from Northern Norway/Sápmi. Written, often in the first-person, by Sámi author, Edel Marit Gaino, these are not retold tales, though they often draw on Sámi folklore of monsters and ghosts. While supernatural in spirit they reflect modern life in Sápmi as well as respect for older traditions. The Canadian illustrator, Toma Feizo Gas, has created a black-and-white world of smeared faces, deep waters and flapping wings that perfectly capture the way the stories slide between reality and another realm of mystery and horror.

 

Edel Marit Gaino grew up in the small Saami village of Láhpoluoppal on the Finnmark Plateau in Northern Norway. Her voice is admirably captured in an English translation by Olivia Lasky, an American translator living in Norway, and Lea Simma, who works for the Writers Center in Jokkmokk, Sweden.

Available now from the Canadian press Inhabit Education Books or bookshop.org, Amazon, and other sources. Inhabit Media Inc. is the first Inuit-owned, independent publishing company in the Canadian Arctic.

Read a review in Quill and Quire here.