Best Indie Historical Fiction of 2025: Reindeer of Chinese Gardens

Every December, Kirkus Reviews publishes a list of its choices for the one hundred best indie titles in different categories.  I'm really pleased to share the news that Reindeer of Chinese Gardens has been chosen as one of six best indie historical novels in 2025 by Kirkus Reviews. It was an honor earlier in the year to receive a starred review, but this is even better! I'm especially happy because much of the novel is set in Port Townsend and highlights the important histories of newcomers from different countries--Chinese, Norwegian, and Sámi.

 

 

The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, Reading at Village Books in Bellingham Oct 12, 4 PM

A heads up for anyone living north of Seattle: I'll be reading from my historical novel, The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, at the fantastic Village Books in Bellingham's Fairhaven district on Sunday, October 12, 2025, at 4:00 PM. Details here.

The novel has been out since February, and I've done a number of events in person and online, as well as interviews on radio and book clubs on Zoom. Unsurprisingly, since a good portion of the novel is set in Port Townsend, it's been very popular with locals and there's always a waiting list to read at our library. I'm still having interesting conversations with people about things they didn't know about Port Townsend, including the existence of a large and thriving population of Chinese who lived here in the last decades of the nineteenth century. I also get asked which house Dagny Bergland, the narrator of the story, lived in (the house is invented but some of the Victorian homes on Morgan Hill with a view of Admiralty Strait were inspirations). Although parts of the novel also take place in Seattle, Alaska, and Norway, it's the Port Townsend settings that really seem to stir the most interest. "I can see Dagny and Edward on Lawrence Street," they tell me. It's a wonderful feeling when I hear that readers can visualize the bustling wharves on Water Street and the more refined churches and shops in Uptown and see my characters walking past them! 

I've also had the chance to hear from Sámi-Americans about their family experiences of immigration to the US. One memorable event took place at the Nordic Museum in Seattle, where I spoke with Amy Swanson King, herself a descendant of Sámi immigrants and an active member of the Pacific Sámi Searvi in the Northwest. I've been happy to contribute to a stronger sense of this historic and contemporary community. 

See you in Bellingham!  

 

 

 

 

Barbara Sjoholm and Kaja Gjelde-Bennett talk about The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens

  

A new interview about The  Reindeer of Chinese Gardens with Sámi-American Ph.D. student Kaja Gjelde-Bennett. Kaja and I talk about immigration to the Pacific Northwest by Chinese, Norwegian, and Sámi at the turn of the 19th century and about the setting of the novel in Port Townsend, Washington. Kaja will be leading a book club discussion of the novel on February 27, 2025 at 6 pm. Sign up through Nordiska.

Water Street, Port Townsend, WA 1908

 

 

Upcoming Events for Reindeer of Chinese Gardens

 

My new historical novel, The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, now feels officially launched, with some upcoming events scheduled for February and March.

On Thursday, February 20,  I'll be doing a reading from the novel in the Carnegie Room of the Port Townsend Library. It seems like a perfect place, since the stacks of maritime titles are nearby, and were an important source for me while writing the book. 

The library on Lawrence Street isn't far from where Dagny and her family and friends lived in the Uptown district of Port Townsend in the 1890s. 

After the reading, I'll be selling and signing books. You can also purchase copies in the historic Aldrich's market (founded in 1895), also on Lawrence Street, and at our local bookstore, Imprint Bookshop, down on Water Street, in the heart of Port Townsend. One of my favorite bookstores in the Pacific Northwest, Port Book and News in Port Angeles, also has copies.

Later in February, I'll be attending an online book club meeting about The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, sponsored by the fantastic Nordiska shop in historic Poulsbo, Washington. Poulsbo is well-known for its Scandinavian roots, but it's not as well-known that a significant number of Sámi immigrants and their descendants also called and call Poulsbo home. The wonderful moderator of the book club, which has been going for three years, is Kaja Gjelde-Bennett, who herself has Sámi family connections to Poulsbo. She is currently living in New Mexico and pursuing a Ph.D. after having been awarded a master's in Indigenous Studies at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. The Nordiska is a great spot to shop for all things Nordic, and carries a selection of Scandinavian books as well. During February The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens can be purchased in person or online for a 15% discount. 

And finally, a heads up about an event on March 20 at the Nordic Museum in Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle. I'm really pleased to be speaking at the Nordic again and in Ballard, where a good deal of the second half of the novel takes place in 1906-1907. I'm also delighted to be in conversation with Amy Swanson King. Amy is a journalist and past president of the Pacific Sámi Searvi. She's currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, studying issues impacting the Sámi, American Sámi and descendants, Indigenous diaspora and language revitalization. Amy and I go back a few years, and in 2023 had a chance to discuss an earlier book of mine, From Lapland to Sápmi on Crossing North, a podcast sponsored by the University of Washington's Scandinavian Department. 

Velkommen to any and all of these events!

 

 

The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, my new historical novel

 

Sjoholm is a gifted storyteller, eloquent on the subject of Sámi prejudice and the poignant dilemma for all immigrants: Make a life for yourself in this new world, or surrender to the emotional pull of the old country? And while Dagny has her own demons, she ends up being not just a survivor, but a humane model for all of us. An engrossing novel that features a memorably strong, vibrant female character.

Kirkus Reviews

 

Through the journals of Dagny Bergland, Barbara Sjoholm has given voice to the challenges of immigration from a variety of viewpoints – Norwegian, Chinese, Sami. Their stories are complex, touching, sometimes tragic. It is above all, a story of America and what it means to be assimilated into American culture and geography.

Marlene Wisuri, Chair, Sami Cultural Center of North America

 

I’m thrilled to announce that my new historical novel, The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens, is now available in print and ebook editions. I had the idea for a novel set in Port Townsend, where I live, many years ago, but it took a long time to come to fruition. It involved a lot of research into not only this city’s boom-and-bust history in the late 1800s, but also research on the “Reindeer Rescue” expedition that brought Sámi from Lapland to Seattle, Port Townsend, and Alaska in 1898, in an ill-fated attempt to supply the Yukon Gold Rush miners with food by reindeer. I also explored Port Townsend’s Chinese district, Norwegian-American newspapers, seafaring in the waning Age of Sail, Seattle’s history, especially the Ballard neighborhood—and much more. No wonder that with all this research, in addition to a number of other books and translations I published over the last decade, that The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens took me over twelve years to complete. 

Norwegian-born Dagny Bergland and her husband arrive in turn-of-the-century Port Townsend, Washington after years of sailing their merchant ship around the globe. They’re just in time for the Yukon Gold Rush and the arrival of a group of Sámi reindeer herders from Lapland on their way to Alaska to supply the ill-prepared miners. Dagny’s journals, beginning in 1897, tell a fresh and riveting history of the Pacific Northwest and its immigrants. A novel of friendship, love, loss, and motherhood, The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens is the story of a remarkable woman who learns to steer a new course in a new country. 

 Although the official publication day is February 1, you can find it on sale now at Amazon, in print and as an ebook, or from other vendors via Draft2Digital, such as Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble. It is also available or can be ordered from brick-and-mortar independent bookstores or online from bookshop.org.

I’ll be giving a reading at the Port Townsend Library Thursday evening at 6pm on February 20. I’ll also be in conversation with Amy Swanson King of the Pacific Sámi Searvi at the Nordic Museum in Seattle on Thursday, March 20. Amy and I previously had a great talk for Crossing North about my previous book, From Lapland to Sapmi.

Barbara Sjoholm and Amy Swanson King, Seattle, Nov 2023