"Many listeners will be transported and maybe even transfixed by this audiobook. Philippe Spall portrays the inhabitants of a village in 1850s Scandinavia with subtle strength. He navigates parallel plots with energy and clarity, his tone of urgency moving the story along." - AudioFile Magazine An epic love story in the vein of Cold Mountain and The Great Circle, about a young reindeer herder and a minister's daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle 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 listeners in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company. 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 is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, as well as residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Lásságámmi Foundation. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Virginia Commonwealth University; currently, she is on the faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Philadelphia. "Ambitious and resonant, a vivid, fascinating, and moving novel...Beautifully written and masterfully researched, the book's greatest triumph is the characters, full of human foibles, passions, and tenderness, jealousy, courage, doubts, and moments of transcendence." -Kirkus (starred review) "Transcendent." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Pylväinen creates a picture of a time and a place with an appealing diversity of characterization-the 'outlander' Swedes, the native Sámi-each character crafted with a depth and complexity that brings them to life, from their religious beliefs to the cultural ties that knot them together and tear them apart. All is told through expressive prose that makes for an engaging immersion in a unique world." -Booklist "The End of Drum-Time explores some of the most complex themes in literature in some of the most gorgeous prose imaginable. Hanna Pylväinen's novel of cultural collision in the far north is an extraordinary feat of research and imagination by an author who reminds you with every page what fiction can accomplish." -Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Present "The End of Drum-Time is a novel like no other. It is as much a historical epic as it is an intimate love story-as much a vast cultural record as it is a detailed study of a person's soul. It is infinitely rich and rewarding. In these pages, Hanna Pylväinen tells a story of love, faith, reindeer herding, and human failing. She has written a masterpiece." -Julia Phillips, author of the National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth "One of the most unique voices in American literature, Hanna Pylväinen occupies a space shared by t