Happy, happy news for one the most internationally successful adult titles on HLA’s list, Juhani Karila’s spectacular novel Fishing for the Little Pike: foreign rights have now been sold to Bookstrap in Sweden and Aukso žuvys in Lithuania. Including these recent sales, the title has now travelled to 16 territories altogether.
Polish cover by Marpress 
Hungarian cover by Metropolis 
Danish cover by Jensen & Dalgaard
Bookstrap Publishing is a very young house, founded only 2021; however, its publishers have long experience working in the book and publishing space in Sweden. The house publishes a wide range of original and translated fiction, as well as non-fiction, including memoirs, narrative journalism, and popular science.
Aukso žuvys is an independent house with a beautiful list of fiction and nonfiction books, as well as small selection of children’s titles and graphic novels. Their focus is history from unexpected angles, and the publisher’s Time Travellers series has received praise for its innovation, uniqueness and reader community-orientated approach. From Finland, Aukso žuvys has previously published the EU Prize for Literature winner Heaven, by Piia Leino, and Henrik Meinander’s nonfiction book A History of Finland.
Fishing for the Little Pike was Karila’s debut novel and a phenomenal success since its publication in 2019. The novel has sold over 20,000 copies in Finland altogether, and gained several awards in the home country, including the Jarkko Laine Literature Prize, the Kalevi Jäntti’s Literary Prize, as well as Tähtifantasia Prize. It also received several nominations abroad – among others, Prix Michelin in France and Internationaler Literaturpreis in Germany.
Don’t forget to tune in the hilarious Literature from Finland podcast episode MYTH, where Karila discussed myths from and about Finland.
Congratulations to the author!