Doreen Zaiss

The Thorn Doreen Zaiss

A family of women confronts the challenges of living in Norway near the turn of the 20th century as they meet poverty, death, mental illness, sexual abuse, alienation, and Mormon missionaries while trying to navigate cruel winters and the exodus of most of the men in the village during cod season.




Henrikka, a teenage girl, learns to provide for her family as her mother, Johanna, descends into episodic madness. Rikka meets Mokci, a Sámi boy, and together they delicately stitch a love story, a freedom story, a story of yearning and need and courage, and desperate choices.




Rikka begins to learn the way of the Sámi people, cares for her mother and her younger sisters with the help of her elderly neighbour, Dagur, all while dreaming of outfitting herself and beginning her journey to ascend the Thorn, the impossibly pointed, forbidding mountain that looms over her, challenging her, calling her name. Choices must be made, and further loss is certain, as is expansive growth.