Punished

By: Ann-Helén Laestadius

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

From the internationally bestselling author of the “extraordinary” (Fredrik Backman) novel Stolen, Punished is the harrowing story of five Sámi children who are forced to attend a government-run boarding school in 1950s Sweden and the emotional scars that haunt them thirty years later.

Can abusers be redeemed? Or can they only be punished?

It is the early 1950s in the Arctic Circle, and once they turn seven years old, Else-Maj, Jon-Ante, Anne-Risten, Marge, and Nilsa are taken from their families. As decreed by the Swedish state, these children of reindeer herders must attend a Sámi “nomad school,” run by vicious headmistress Rita Olsson, where they are not only stripped of their culture and language, but also physically, verbally, and psychologically abused. As the children are only allowed to return home sporadically, their parents know little of how their children are mistreated, and those who dare to speak up are silenced.

Thirty years later, the five children have chosen different paths in order to survive—and forget. Else-Maj is strong in her Sámi identity but finds herself emotionally distant and has turned to religion to cope, while hypochondriac Anne-Risten now calls herself Anne and hides her heritage from her friends and community. Nilsa has become a reindeer herder like his father, but his emotions are volatile and unpredictable, even more so ever since the death of his brother. Jon-Ante is haunted by the memories of headmistress Rita and the lasting injury she left him with, unable to find where he belongs, and Marge, who is about to adopt a daughter from Colombia, is consumed by the moral struggle of removing a child from her home country.

Then, suddenly, Rita Olsson turns up among them. Now a frail, elderly woman with God on her side, she pretends as though nothing ever happened. But the five former students have neither forgotten nor forgiven her.

Told from five richly individual perspectives and inspired by the author’s family history, Punished is a searing, heart-wrenching novel about trauma, memory, love, and loss, written in taut prose and vibrating with righteous rage over one of the Swedish state’s greatest betrayals toward the Sámi.

©2025 Ann-Helén Laestadius (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

“A deeply gripping and atmospheric novel that will take hold of your heart. Filled with compelling characters and a formidable landscape—this debut is a triumph!”
— DANIELLE DANIEL, award-winning author of Daughters of the Deer

“Kick-started by the disturbing poaching and slaughter of a reindeer that was part of a Sámi family's herd in remote northern Sweden, Laestadius’ saga details the inequities faced by the contemporary Indigenous Sámi population. . . . A revelatory account of not-well-known assaults on the rights of an Indigenous group.”
— Kirkus

“[Written] with sensitivity and insight for the subtleties of Sámi life.”
— The New York Times