The End of DrumTime, Hanna Pylvainen
The End of DrumTime, Hanna Pylvainen
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The End of Drum-Time
A Novel

Author: Hanna Pylväinen

Narrator: Philippe Spall

Unabridged: 14 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/24/2023

Synopsis

"Many listeners will be transported and maybe even transfixed by this audiobook. Philippe Spall portrays the inhabitants of a village in 1850s Scandinavia with subtle strength. He navigates parallel plots with energy and clarity, his tone of urgency moving the story along." - AudioFile Magazine

An epic love story in the vein of Cold Mountain and The Great Circle, about a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle

In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sámi reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvár, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders—of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides—as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea.

Gorgeously written and sweeping in scope, Hanna Pylväinen's The End of Drum-Time immerses listeners in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

About Hanna Pylväinen

Hanna Pylväinen is the author of the novel We Sinners, which received a Whiting Award and a Balcones Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal; she is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, as well as residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Lásságámmi Foundation. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Virginia Commonwealth University; currently, she is on the faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Philadelphia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Annette on February 06, 2023

The End of Drum-Time explores the cultural clashes among the Nordic people. Sami people, also called Lapps, kept being pushed up north above the Arctic Circle as no one wanted to bother with them and wanted them out of the way. Sami received some freedom in the north as they crossed the borders with......more

Goodreads review by Julie on January 04, 2025

Take a deep breath. Be still. Listen as the Northern Lights hum, the reindeer grunt and click, the fire snaps, the snow falls, the healer chants. Not long ago this land had no borders. It was ranged by nomads who migrated with their herds to the sea in summer, to the frozen tundra in winter. Men and......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on November 11, 2022

In the mid-nineteenth century settlers were pushing into the traditional territory of the Sami reindeer herders. The nomadic Sami had no country or political power, the lands they traveled across ruled by the Swedes or the Russians. The Sami were at the bottom in a mix of cultures and languages and......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on March 18, 2025

More like a 3.5. Lots of conflicting feelings about this one. I was intrigued by the setting and the Sámi culture, but I was tired of the missionary and purist agendas (they really rile me up). I liked the prose, and I think I may want to read it again in a few years. But I’m also glad the book is fi......more

Goodreads review by Paula on October 03, 2023

An extraordinary, heartbreaking and powerful book.The blurb doesn´t do it justice, because it focuses on the love story (which is important) and not on the pivotal elements, which are the culture clash, the loss of a way of life and how each of the characters will cope. The writing´s clunky at first-......more

Quotes

“Ambitious and resonant, a vivid, fascinating, and moving novel...Beautifully written and masterfully researched, the book's greatest triumph is the characters, full of human foibles, passions, and tenderness, jealousy, courage, doubts, and moments of transcendence.”
—Kirkus (starred review)

“Transcendent.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Pylväinen creates a picture of a time and a place with an appealing diversity of characterization—the 'outlander' Swedes, the native Sámi—each character crafted with a depth and complexity that brings them to life, from their religious beliefs to the cultural ties that knot them together and tear them apart. All is told through expressive prose that makes for an engaging immersion in a unique world.”
—Booklist

“The End of Drum-Time explores some of the most complex themes in literature in some of the most gorgeous prose imaginable. Hanna Pylväinen’s novel of cultural collision in the far north is an extraordinary feat of research and imagination by an author who reminds you with every page what fiction can accomplish.”
—Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Present

“The End of Drum-Time is a novel like no other. It is as much a historical epic as it is an intimate love story—as much a vast cultural record as it is a detailed study of a person's soul. It is infinitely rich and rewarding. In these pages, Hanna Pylväinen tells a story of love, faith, reindeer herding, and human failing. She has written a masterpiece.”
—Julia Phillips, author of the National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth

“One of the most unique voices in American literature, Hanna Pylväinen occupies a space shared by the Scandinavian writers Kerstin Ekman, Tove Jansson, and, beyond that, 19th century masters. The End of Drum-Time brings the readers to a recent past, a distant land, and proves that the complexity of human nature is as relevant and timeless as the ancient landscape. A triumph from the first page to the last!”
—Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End

“The nuanced, fully realized world of The End of Drum-Time is mesmerising. Pylväinen renders the icy landscape at the edge of the arctic circle as vibrantly as she conjures the distinctive voices of the characters and the impossible choices the Sámi families face. Like Hilary Mantel, Pylväinen has written that rare historical novel that is as expansive as it is precise and lyrical.”
—Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew

“Hanna Pylväinen’s audacious and thrilling epic about the human and spiritual costs of religious colonialism took my breath away. A literary ventriloquist, she gracefully evokes both the Sámi and the Swedes with a profound awareness of cultural nuance that makes any conversation or gesture of love thrum with social and political resonance. A brilliant achievement.”
—Marisa Silver, author of The Mysteries and Little Nothing

“The End of Drum-Time may take place in the 19th century, but its concerns--faith, love, the treatment of indigenous people--are anything but dated. I was enraptured by the vivid world of this novel, which feels like a classic. Hanna Pylväinen is an exquisite writer and this book is extraordinary.”
—Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them

Awards

  • Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
  • Time Magazine Best Books of the Year
  • National Book Awards - Longlist
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