Finlandia winner Margarita by Anni Kytömäki continues conquering the world: Lithuanian rights have been acquired by Tyto alba!
This is the third foreign rights sale for the book and it is also optioned in France by Rue de l’échiquier, who just last week acquired World French rights to Kytömäki’s debut Goldheart.
Margarita (2020)
Tyto alba is one of the major publishers in Lithuania, founded in 1993. Since then, it has established its name as a home of quality literature that is also approachable for wide audiences. The publisher’s impressive list includes such bestselling authors as Jette Kaarsbøl, Marina Stepnova, Abir Mukherjee, Orhan Pamuk and others.
Rahva Raamat has acquired the Estonian rights of Vuokko Hurme’s three-part middle-grade series: Upside Down, Right-Side Up and About-Turn.
Rahva Raamat is the Estonian publisher of such children’s authors as David Walliams, Jeff Kinney, Erin Hunter and J.K. Rowling.
Rotation series has been praised for its unique idea: what would happen if the world turned upside down – if the gravity would make everything fall into the sky? How could you keep on living in a world where you are all the time facing the danger of falling down? And where does everything fall to – is there something beneath the Sky?
Mind-boggling, smart and heartfelt, Vuokko Hurme’s Rotation series is an adventure, a story of a friendship and a praise to writing: the narrator of the three novels is 8-year-old Lenna, who is writing down the exciting turns of her family and her friend, Jaan.
Each year, Finnish bloggers and bookgrammers organize their own voting and choose the best book of the year. The clear favourite of 2020 was Anni Kytömäki’sFinlandia winner Margarita!
The participants can only vote for the books that they have written about in their blog or Instagram posts, and each can give points (3, 2 and 1) to three books respectively.
Margarita (2020)
The bloggers shared their impressions:
”Could someone please give Anni Kytömäki the Nobel, the Booker, the Pulitzer Prize or something? I think they should, because Finlandia [Prize] is way too small for Anni. Each of her books is better than the previous one, and that’s why I’m not sure if I should give Margarita the full five stars: what if the next one is even better? I don’t know how it would be possible, but Anni probably knows.” – Heidin kuvanurkka on Instagram
”Margarita fully deserves winning Finlandia Prize: the end result is well controlled, the language is stunningly beautiful, the storylines are skilfully written, making the book a simply wonderful reading experience.” – Kirsin Book Club blog
Kytömäki also won the Blogistania Finlandia in 2014, for her debut novel Goldheart, recently sold to Rue de l’échiquier in France. Margarita was recently sold to Estonia and Hungary, and an offer from Lithuania is on the table.
”How would I picture REC? Enchanting, different, mysterious, multilayered, deep, surprising – all the words that, in the end, don’t even come close to describing this baffling, but at the same time, easily approachable and interesting novel. My words are not enough to tell you where Marisha Rasi-Koskinen manages to take you with hers – somewhere beyond the visible reality.” – Kirsin Book Club blog
Rasi-Koskinen’s novel has been recently sold to Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark.
Kari Hotakainen’s #1 bestselling Story has been acquired by Dybbuk in the Czech Republic, Polar in Hungary and Petergailis in Latvia.
Kari Hotakainen (Photo: Laura Malmivaara)
The number 1 bestseller with over 30,000 copies sold between mid-August 2020 and January 2021, Kari Hotakainen’s Story has been previously sold to Iperborea in Italy.
Kari Hotakainen has been awarded for his previous works with the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, Finland’s biggest literary award the Finlandia Prize, the Prix du Courrier International and the Prix Coup du Coeur, amongst others.His first nonfiction book, The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) is the best-selling Finnish nonfiction work of all times with over 200,000 sold copies in Finland and over 100,000 abroad.
Story has been described as slyly moving and wildly funny; in it, the countryside has been turned into a Recreation Area, and everyone has been made to live in the City. As there is not enough housing for everyone, a brutal playoff begins. Who can tell the most attractive story and make their lives seem interesting and get an apartment?
Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark have acquired the rights of Marisha Rasi-Koskinen’s novel REC, awarded a week ago on Friday with Runeberg Prize.
Marisha Rasi-Koskinen. (Photo: Miikka Pirinen)
REC, praised by readers and critics alike, is an atmospheric, post-modern dive into the fragmented reality we are living today. When teenager Lucas meets a peculiar boy named Cole, it is a start of a decades-long on-and-off friendship. In the story, real and fictional characters are present simultaneously, images and stories begin many times and in many places, and dark, possessive and manipulating side of people take over with irrevocable outcome – unless… nothing is true.
Jensen & Dalgaard is a Danish publisher with a strong list of quality fiction. From Finland, they are the publisher of Selja Ahava, Anu Kaaja, Juhani Karila, Leena Krohn, and several others.
