The Helsinki Book Fair is in full swing, and domestic authors are getting the spotlight they deserve. Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea has been a literary phenomenon both domestically and internationally, and has been broadcast on the national news for a piece about literary export and international success, drawing comparisons between the Finnish literary scene and the international landscape.
You can tune in and watch the extract about Beasts of the Sea (in Finnish) here.
Last week the Frankfurt Book Fair saw the success of Das Wesen des Lebens, the German edition of Beasts of the Sea by Fischer, and more news and accolades for the foreign editions are flowing in.
Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries. Approaching natural diversity through individual destinies, it’s a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries.
The novel is the winner of The Thank You for the Book Award, Finland’s booksellers’ prize, the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize. Its international breakthrough has been acknowledged for example by the Bookseller and its foreign rights have been sold to 27 territories all over the world.
In Finland, Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S, part of Schildts & Söderströms and it has already sold 50.000 copies in Finland alone.
Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potentials of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science.
Congratulations to the author!