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!