A Must-Read Epic Love Story

'Transcendent' Publishers Weekly
'A triumph' Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End
'Audacious and thrilling epic' Marisa Silver, author of The Mysteries
'Extraordinary' Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them

At the edge of the arctic circle, things are changing quickly…

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 readers in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.

Shortlisted for the National Book Award

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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 has taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently on the faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Philadelphia.