Moa Backe Åstot

Fire From The Sky is a beautifully crafted, emotion packed LGBT YA novel. But I assure you, as an older adult, I too enjoyed this story immensely. It is a coming of age story of a young man with all the usual problems associated with the teen age years, but the massive complications added by the awareness that you are falling in love with another boy. Further complicating matters for Ante is the fact that he is part of a Sami community, a tight knit group where family and tradition are everything; clinging to the bits of culture they have been left with after having so much stripped away from them by years of unethical practices perpetrated on them. Ante feels this loss of his people keenly and holds dear the Sami traditions.

The emotions and behavior of a teenager was depicted so realistically; the rebelliousness, the rude behavior to parents, the struggles in general--all of it was portrayed. Ante has to come to terms with the fact that he does not like girls and he stumbles along the way, hurting others, too. In his community, there is basically no tolerance for homosexuality which puts Ante in a nearly impossible situation. Amazingly, it is his bond with his grandmother that helps him break through his emotions and start to come to grips with the fact that he can be himself and love who he chooses.

I was drawn to this story because of the bits of the Sami cultural life described in it and I was not disappointed. I found those details to be fascinating and part of the storyline regarding the cultural aspects of the Sami was drawn from real events.

It was amazing to me that the story was still so full of beautiful elements and sailed along smoothly, and even poetically; because it is a translation. I generally steer away from translations unless it is a classic, because I have found that usually so much is lost in the translation. This story shone through even after translation.… (plus d'informations)