The Danish rights of The Woman Who Loved Insects have been acquired by Jensen & Dalgaard.
Selja Ahava’s novel The Woman Who Loved Insects that will come out in Finnish in August 2020 has been acquired by Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark.
Ahava’s second novel Things that Fall from the Sky has been a remarkable success, with publishers in 24 countries so far.
The Woman Who Loved Insects is a story of Maria, born in the age of witch trials. She has been fascinated by insects since childhood and begins to draw the metamorphic life cycles of them, as did her historical model, the German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717).
With the passage of time from one age to another the world changes, and religion finds a competitor in science. The novel shows a woman breaking out of her narrow role, gaining a voice and authorship, together with the right to ponder the mystery of the origin of life. Just as insects undergo a transformation, so over time Maria changes, going on to live for 370 years.