by Olivier Truc
Olivier Truc
Reading Group Guide
Discussion Questions
As it’s described in the story, the arctic tundra is a harsh landscape, but a beautiful one, too. Would you like to live there? How would you feel about the forty-day-long midwinter polar night?
The traditional drums are sacred to the Sami, objects used by a shaman to heal the sick and talk to the dead. Do you think artifacts like this should be on display, so that museum visitors can admire them and become educated about Sami culture? Or would it be better for the drums to be returned directly to the Sami, the original owners?
On some level, Klemet feels that he isn’t truly one of the Sami, because his family gave up reindeer herding several generations back, and because he was raised Laestadian and attended Norwegian school. What do you think defines someone as part of one culture or another? How does Klemet’s personal cultural identity affect his role as a member of the reindeer police? In what ways has his cultural background shaped his life?
Compare and contrast Nina and Klemet. How does Nina’s position as an outsider impact her rapport with the reindeer farmers, her standing in the community, and her perspective on the case?
Do you think it’s more important for the traditional culture of the Sami to be preserved by conserving the tundra for reindeer pasture, or do you think that keeping the land free of mining and development holds back economic progress in the region? What do you think would be a fair land use arrangement between the reindeer herders and the mining companies?
Find a recording of a traditional Sami joik online and listen to it. What does it remind you of? How does it make you feel?
What do you think of Aslak’s actions at the end of the book? What would you have done, in his place?
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Table of Contents
Cover
Welcome
Title Page
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
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18
19
20
21
22
23
24
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41
42
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55
About the Author
Author’s Note
Reading Group Guide
Newsletters
Table of Contents
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Olivier Truc
Translation copyright © 2014 by Louise Rogers Lalaurie
Cover design by Brigid Pearson
Cover photograph by Gary Black / Getty Images
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Originally published in France in 2012 under the title Le dernier Lapon by Editions Métailié
First ebook edition: April 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4555-4758-6
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