Ten Past One, Please!

I have a request of the publishing universe: Would someone please translate and publish Ann-Helén Laestadius’s young adult novel Tio över ett into English?

I kept thinking that as I was reading the book in Swedish, its original language, after it came my way through a friend who had met the author. A year later, I still think about it. A story that sticks like that is a story with resonance.

The title translates as Ten Past One. That's the time Maja sets her clock for each night. She needs to be awake to make sure she and her family survive the nighttime blasting that occurs deep below ground in the enormous, state-owned LKAB mine beneath Kiruna. This actual mine in far northern Sweden, which has operated for over 120 years, is the largest iron ore mine in Europe and employs some 4,000 people. Unfortunately, the enormity of the mining activity is causing cracks at ground level that threaten the homes, roads, infrastructure, and safety of residents. Portions of the town are in the process of being moved or the families relocated to New Kiruna, several miles away.

Maja’s father, like so many residents of Kiruna, works in the mine. He earns a good living. But Maja suffers from increasing anxiety, mostly irrational but also not entirely unreasonable. She endures the typical stresses of adolescence — friendships, school and peer pressures, family disagreements, a serious crush — with an added layer of genuine fear about change and the potential for impending disaster.

The setting is intrinsically interesting but Maja’s voice gives life to the story. She is so emotionally vulnerable, so frank, and struggles so valiantly to find her way through her troubles, I couldn’t help but empathize. As she navigates the unwelcome changes around her, she comes to grips with realities of politics and economy, family and class differences, prejudice against the Sami, and her own power to be resilient.

 

There’s actually no need to take my word for it that the book is worth translating. In 2016, Tio över ett won the August Prize for Swedish children’s literature, as well as the Norrland Literature Prize in 2017. Laestadius, a journalist by trade, has written several YA novels and two picture books, Pimpelfiske (2018) (Ice Fishing) and Vinterkväll (2019) (Winter Evening) with illustrator Jessika Berglund. Her first adult novel, Stöld (Theft), has just been released.