Month: March 2022

How incredible it is to see big successes of some of our most beautiful titles!

The philosophical and loving Cat, who is actually a dog, and her adventures don’t cease to interest the foreign publishers: foreign rights of all four books have now been sold to Pandora | Trei Editorial Group in Romania, making it the 9th foreign territory for this beautiful series.

Written by Tomi Kontio and illustrated by Elina Warsta, the books tell a story about an unlikely friendship between lonely individuals. It deals with accepting difference, seeing people without prejudice and the importance of looking beyond the surface. The bittersweet, humorous style shows life in all its guises; even those of us with a rougher lot can experience joy and happiness.

The first book in the series, A Dog Called Cat, was published in 2015, and was shortlisted for a Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize and nominated for the IBBY Honour List for Elina Warsta’s illustrations. A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat followed in 2019 and was nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Junior Prize. The series continued in 2020 with A Dog Called Cat Looking for Home and finished with A Dog Called Cat and the Wonder of Christmas in 2021.

The books have been sold to:
Bulgaria, Raketa; 
Estonia, Päike ja pilv; 
Hungary, Koinonia;
Lithuania, Nieko rimto;
Romania, Pandora | Trei Editorial Group;
Serbia, Pcelica;
Slovakia, Ikar; 
Spain, Lata de Sal;
Sweden, Epix

Congratulations to the authors!

How wonderful to see that our backlist titles travel just as well as the new ones. World English rights of Mannerheim: From Russian Spy to Finnish Statesman, a 2017 title by Henrik Meinander, have now been sold to Hurst.

Henrik Meinander (b. 1960) is a professor of history at the University of Helsinki and the author of many acclaimed books on Finnish and Nordic history. He was formerly curator of the Mannerheim Museum in Helsinki.

Hurst Publishers is a London-based house, established in 1969. The publisher focuses exclusively on nonfiction, and their books range from African Studies, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies to History, War & Conflict, and International Relations.

Congratulations to the author!

One of the biggest literary events in Finland last autumn, Matias Riikonen’s novel Matara continues its journey to foreign territories: recently sold to the French world, the title has now been acquired by Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark.

Jensen & Dalgaard is a beautiful publisher based in Copenhagen, passionate about publishing literature of undying literary quality. Among others, it has previously published Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila; Katie-Kate by Anu Kaaja; REC by Marisha Rasi-Koskinen and Selja Ahava’s novels.

Since its publication, Matara has gained an immense success: it was nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize and as well as the Runeberg Prize, and won the Torch-Bearer Prize.

Don’t forget to check out the short interview with the author!

Congratulations to the author for the success!

Fantastic news has reached us from Germany: Anja Portin’s 2020 Finlandia Junior winner Radio Popov has been acquired by arsEdition, meaning that the magical children’s novel has now travelled 21 territories!

The editor, Katharina Braun, who has been considering the title for some time now, stated about Radio Popov:

“I couldn’t forget this title (…). I had a feeling there was something very special about this book. The pages I read months ago still stuck vividly in my head which is exceptional – I read so many books for work (…) [Radio Popov] has so much warmth, as well as the power to give hope and a feeling of self-empowerment in these strange times.”

Ars Edition is a well-established children’s publisher with books for all ages on its list. Originally founded in 1896, the company has been a part of the Sweden’s Bonnier Group since 2000.

This is the 21st foreign rights sale for Radio Popov, but rights are still available in Sweden, the English world and many other territories.

Congratulations to the author!

Each year, Finnish bloggers, bookstagrammers and booktubers organize their own voting and choose the best book of the year. The clear favourite of 2021 was Anneli Kanto’s historical sensation The Rat Saint.

The participants can only vote for the books that they have written about in their blogs or Instagram posts, or discussed on their Youtube channels, and each can give points (3, 2 and 1) to three books respectively.

The participants have shared their impressions:

”An extraordinary historical novel and an intriguing topic! The themes are abundant, but the readers can trust they’ll be immersed by Kanto’s flowing language and this wonderful story.” – Kirja vieköön book blog

The Rat Saint is a Künstlerroman about a woman who chooses to model her self-portrait on Kakukylla, the saint who protects against rats and mice. Overlapping layers of rural life, artisanship, folklore, and Bible stories form a deep, vivid frame for the robust plot and delicate internal mood. A historical sensation of 2021, the novel sold close to 20,000 copies in Finland. It was nominated for the prestigious Runeberg Prize.

Another title represented by HLA, Pirkko Saisio’s new novel Passion, came third in the Blogistania Finlandia competition.

Congratulations to the author!