The nominees for the prestigious Runeberg Prize were announced today, and we are thrilled to see two of our authors among them: Iida Rauma was nominated for her novel Destruction, and Marja Kyllönen for her novel Undeparted.
Destruction came out in January 2022, instantly gaining an impressive amount of praising reviews – resulting in the first-print run selling out in a week. Just last week, the novel was awarded the most prestigious literary award in the country, Finlandia Prize. Swedish rights were recently sold to Rámus Förlag.
One of the strongest literary titles of the year in Finland, Destruction has brought the question about violence towards children and the societal structures supporting it a visible topic in public discussion. “No other type of violence is talked about in the same way as acts and attitudes towards children in school. Such deeds are allowed in the school environment that in the adults’ world would be subject to criminal law,” has Iida Rauma said in one of her interviews.
Iida Rauma’s (b. 1984) debut novel The Book of Disappearances was published in 2011 and nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. Her 2015 novel On Sex and Mathematics was nominated for the European Union Prize for Literature and won both the Kalevi Jäntti Prize and the Torch-Bearer Prize. Rauma has a master’s degree in political science with a specialization in political history.
Marja Kyllönen’s new novel Undeparted glows with black luminosity. In the hardscrabble north of the 1950s, Rauno loses his heart to the girl from the neighboring farm, Laimi Inari. The young couple’s forbidden love is sweet, but the happiness they anticipate never manifests. They remain childless, and year by year the flame fades.
The novel is a story of childlessness and dreams that fade or morph into nightmares. Page by page, it swells with inevitable force into a horror story that firmly holds the reader in its agonizing grip.
The novel was also nominated for this year’s Finlandia Prize.
Aside from The Undeparted, Marja Kyllönen (b. 1975) has published two more novels: Leaded Loins (1997), which won the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize for best debut of the year, and Violations (2001). Her radio play Silent Partner (2010) was selected as Finland’s nominee for the Prix Italia.
Runeberg Prize is a prestigious literary prize named after the Finnish national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is one of the most important literary awards in Finland, second only to Finlandia Prize. The prize, worth 20,000 euros, is given out in two categories: fiction and children’s books. A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large, a children’s novel by Sofia and Amanda Chanfreau that also won Finlandia Junior Prize, is among the nominees for the Runeberg Junior.
Among the 10 Runeberg Prize nominees, 5 more authors are published by houses that HLA represents: Johan Bargum, Miira Luhtavaara and Silja Järventausta, all published by Teos Publishers; Ulrika Nielsen, published by Schildts & Söderströms; and Päivi Liski, published by Kustantamo S&S.
The winners will be announced on The Runeberg’s Day, the 5th of February 2022.
Congratulations to the authors and fingers crossed!