In the 1950s near the Arctic Circle, seven-year-olds Jon-Ante, Else-Maj, Nilsa, Marge, and Anne-Risten are taken from their families.
As children of Indigenous Sámi reindeer herders, the Swedish state has mandated they attend a "nomad school," where they are forced to assimilate to Swedish culture. Forbidden from speaking their native language and threatened into obedience by their abusive Housemother, the truth about the cruelties they face remains repressed for years. In the 1980s, these five characters have chosen different paths to cope with the scars of their past.
Based on true stories from the author's mother, Punished is an unforgettable novel about the afterlives of abuse, systemic cultura erasure, and the importance of community-a righteous reckoning with a nation's unforgivable betrayal of its Indigenous people.
