Murder and Mystery in Láŋtdievvá

Sámi literature is on the rise in Norway, the latest addition being Sigbjørn Skåden’s Brage Prize-nominated novel Planterhaug/Láŋtdievvá, published in both Norwegian and Tornedal Sámi.

The novel is a crazy murder mystery set in Planterhaug/Láŋtdievvá, a village in Ofoten in Nordland where Skåden grew up. Planterhaug is an example of what the Norwegian state would call successful assimilation during the period of Norwegianization. Skåden has previously visited LitFestBergen and talked about the fatal consequences for the Sámi people of Norwegianization – the great Norwegian betrayal – in a conversation about what it was like to grow up in an area of deep racism and scepticism towards the Sámi, not least among Norwegianized Sámi. Planterhaug/Láŋtdievvá is a deeply serious yet humorous novel about nature, culture, belonging, and what it means to be Sámi. Skåden meets artist, writer and deputy chair of the Bergen Sámi Association Katarina Dorothea Isaksen for a conversation about Planterhaug, the possibilities of fiction, and expressing oneself in one’s own mother tongue.

The conversation will be held in Norwegian and Tornedal Sámi.