Who owns the earth? Who decides whether it should be pasture for reindeer or dug up in search of sought-after minerals? Kathrine Nedrejord could hardly have written a more relevant youth novel. With the Fosen demonstrations fresh in our minds, where young activists took over the Storting to protest against the wind farm that could threaten reindeer herding on the Fosen peninsula, “All for the herd” becomes a timely manifestation of an old cultural conflict. Crafty about sustainability Elle is 17 years old. She grows up in the small village of Čáppanjárga in Finnmark. The father is a reindeer herder. Elle’s greatest wish is to take over the herd. Then comes the big bad wolf. The mining company Green Future – it was hardly necessary to emphasize the irony in the name – will look for minerals in the exact area where the family’s reindeer herd lives. The mayor is happy about jobs and fresh money coming into the village. What do the locals say? For Elle, it becomes screamingly complicated. Stepfather Ailo is about to lose his job. If he doesn’t get new income, he and Elle’s mother and little sister will have to move to Alta or Tromsø. NORWEGIAN-SAMI: Kathrine Nedrejord is a Norwegian-Sami writer, playwright and stage artist, living in Paris. The 36-year-old made her debut in 2010 with the novel “Transit”, and in 2014 her second novel, “Tregsel”, was published. Photo: Elliot Delage Complicated love It is a well-known conflict that Kathrine Nedrejord portrays, in radical Bokmål. But it takes time before the readers get to know how acute it will be. For first, Nedrejord enters an absorbing love conflict, where the object of Elle’s feelings is the newly moved Norwegian activist Brage, who recruits members for the organization Miljøungdommen. Elle falls flat on her face. It won’t be easy, since beautiful Brage has just fallen in love with one of Elle’s closest friends. Here, Nedrejord explores with fine-tuned antennae what is okay and what is not, a theme many readers will recognise. Skillful structure “Everything for the herd” is Kathrine Nedrejord’s sixth youth novel. She also writes for adults, most recently she was nominated for the Nordic Council’s literature prize with “Criminal and Punishment”. In addition, she has been a house dramatist at both the National Theater and Dramatikkens hus. That Nedrejord has a dramatic nerve is clearly noticeable. There are plenty of challenges here: Should Elle stay together with Brage? Will she join the Environmental Youth? Will the village say yes to the mining company? And what consequences will it have for her future as a reindeer herder? Show, don’t tell Kathrine Nedrejord can create a plot. But I miss a greater personal involvement in the text. It is Elle who tells the story, and who says that the herd means everything to her. Nevertheless, it will be close to 200 pages before she seeks it out (then I don’t count on shorter flashbacks or an accident where several of the animals have been killed by a rough driver and she goes out to see if she can help). There is something external in Elle’s narrative style when she describes the plain: All you see are low growth, moss, stone piles and some mountain lakes here and there. What kind of plants, I wonder, what kind of moss and what do the stone piles look like? Elle’s connections to nature and animals become more assertions than genuine love. And down in a critical reader’s head trickles the mantra Show, don’t tell. There will be too much narration and too little display of feelings and belonging. The narrative also suffers from Nedrejord inserting important information into the dialogues, which may be understandable enough, but which makes the conversations seem less real. Kick to Hamsun himself The reflections on the people in the village and the Sami are sharp and good. There she can write that you are just a tiny branch on a dwarf birch in a gigantic expanse, or she shows how kindred and family are alpha and omega since people always ask Whose are you? Kathrine Nedrejord succeeds in writing a committed youth novel, acutely topical, but where the literary is sometimes weakened by the urge to clarify. I am struck by the philosophical opening, where the author alludes to Knut Hamsun himself and “Markens grøde”, with the words There was once a path. We of course remember Hamsun’s mention of the occasional note, which had sniffed out the path before Man came to the stray land. Here it is Elle who has trodden this path, between the houses of her mother and father. This is how she hopes it will remain, if both parents can have a future in the village. In the spirit of the indigenous people, with a touch of resignation, she concludes with the acknowledgment that exploitation will always have to be fought: news reviewer Photo: Aschehoug Title: “Alt fo flokken” Author: Kathrine Nedrejord Genre: Young adult novel Number of pages: 223 Publisher: Aschehoug Hey! I am a literary critic at news, and write about books for both children and adults. Among the really good children’s books I’ve read lately are “Oskar og eg” by Maria Parr or “Badesommar” by Ruth Lillegraven.
ttn-69
“Everything for the herd” by Kathrine Nedrejord – news Culture and entertainment
