Forty Days without Shadow
Winter in Lapland is cold and miserable this year. In Kautokeino, a large Sámi village in the middle of the tundra, the local museum is preparing to exhibit a traditional Sámi drum recently returned by an elderly French explorer. For local Sámi, the event is monumental.
When night falls, the drum is stolen. Suspicion falls first on Laestadian Protestant fundamentalists who are opposed to the revival of ancient pagan Sámi religion; and then on Sámi separatists who want to draw attention to their cause.
The death of a reindeer herder does nothing to help the case. The vast, seemingly boundless white wilderness of Lapland has become a battlefield, where anger, greed and suspicion reign. The roar of two snowmobiles breaks the silence: long-time Kautokeino resident Klemet Nango and Nina Nansen, fresh out of the police academy, are members of the P9 patrol of the Reindeer Police, a specialised brigade accustomed to most of the natural and manmade challenges in the region. They are convinced that the two cases are linked. But not everyone in Kautokeino wants to see their investigation move forward; they would rather send the police officers on their way on their snow scooters across the frozen vastness, to tend to the eternal quarrels between reindeer herders.
What happened in 1939 during the Frenchman’s expedition and why did one of the guides give him this drum before disappearing? What message did it carry? What stories do the joïks tell, the traditional songs that Klemet's old uncle sings to his young Chinese fiancée? What is the kind-hearted Berit, who has been mistreated for fifty years by the pastor and his employers, hiding? And what is a French geologist with dubious proclivities doing in the area?
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Original Language
FRENCH | Éditions Métailié
FRENCH (Graphic novel) | Sarbacane
Translation Rights
CATALAN | Columna
CZECH | Panteon
DANISH | Modtryk
DUTCH | Signatuur
ENGLISH (UK) | Trapdoor/Little Brown
ENGLISH (USA) | Grand Central/Little Brown
FINNISH | Siltala
GERMAN | Droemer Knaur
ITALIAN | Marsilio
JAPANESE | Tokyo Sogen
LATVIAN | Lauku Avize
LITHUANIAN | Briedis
NORWEGIAN | Cappelen Damm
POLISH | Czarna Owca
PORTUGUESE (Brazil) | Alaúde/Tordesilhas
PORTUGUESE (Portugal) | Planeta Portugal
SLOVAK | Pantheon
SPANISH | Destino / Grupo Planeta
SPANISH (Audio) | Audible
SWEDISH | Piratförlaget
Prizes
Prix AVF Ploemeur – Sillage - 2015
Prix 1001 Feuilles Noires de la Bibliothèque de Lamballe - 2013
Prix Biblioblog - 2013
Prix des Lecteurs de Quais du Polar-20 Minutes - 2013
Prix des lecteurs du Pays de Redon - 2014
Prix des lecteurs Plume Libre – Plume de bronze dans la catégorie "Nouvelle plume polar- thriller francophone" - 2013
Prix des lecteurs Saint-Antoine/Tenon, sélection roman policier - 2014
Prix du livre CE 38 - 2014
Prix du Salon polar de Montigny-les-Cormeilles - Best Novel 2013
Prix du Polar des médiathèques d’Antony - 2013
Prix du Rotary Club et Salon du livre de Cosne-sur-Loire - Best Debut Novel 2013
Prix Goutte de Sang d’Encre, prix des lecteurs décerné par le réseau des médiathèques de la Ville de Vienne - 2013
Prix Inter polar du festival polar de Reims - 2013
Prix littéraire du premier roman policier de Lens, festival Polarlens, 2014 - 2014
Prix littéraire « Complètement livres ! » - 2015
Prix Mes-Sou-Thu (prix des bibliothèques de Messimy, Soucieux-en-Jarrest et Thurins) - 2013
Prix Mystère de la critique - 2012
Prix Polar de Saint Maur en Poche - 2014
Prix polar Michel Lebrun - 2013
Prix Robinsonnais - 2013
Prix Sang d’Encre de la Ville de Vienne - 2013
Prix Thierry Jonquet - 2013
Trophée 813 du festival Paris Polar - 2013
Reviews
"Set in Northern Norway, a fascinating thriller that makes you shudder and offers the opportunity to discover a mysterious land, the land of the Sámi people." La Reppublica
"This novel is a homage to the recovery of identity." La Vanguardia
“Highly recommended: just as we might have thought Scandinavian crime was exhausted, a brilliant new voice comes along.” The Independent
“A brilliant and rich thriller. A breathtaking journey through wild and icy lands, that leads us to a people struggling to preserve its identity.” Le Figaro
“Olivier Truc’s prose is brilliant (...) and the plotting is superb. (...) It is meant to become a classic that will raise the standard of the crime novel!” Dast Magazine
