Author: Chiara

Liv! by Helmi Kekkonen and Rainbow Swallowtail by Ilja Karsikas are running for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year Award.

The nominations keep rolling in for our beautiful list: Rainbow Swallowtail by Ilja Karsikas and Finlandia-nominated Liv! by Helmi Kekkonen are running for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year Award.

Each year, the Finnish Book Art Committee selects the most beautiful books published in Finland during the previous year. One title is awarded as the Year’s Most Beautiful Book, and others, organised according to their categories, receive honorary mentions.

Rainbow Swallowtail by Ilja Karsikas is running in the category Most Beautiful Children’s Book for its design and illustrations, all by Ilja Karsias. Rainbow Swallowtail is a colourful feel-good story about the meaning of friendship and how important it is to know how to ask for help and forgive. It follows Rina and Marla, two friends who get into a fight in the middle of a game. Both are sad and struggle to apologize. Thankfully a colorful adventure brings them together again, and their friendship is stronger for it. In Finland Rainbow Swallowtail is published by S&S.

In Liv! we follow 22-year-old Liv, who is on holiday on an island in the Finnish archipelago with her family. One day she is approached by a man while she is sunbathing on the cliffs, and he is a little too friendly, sits a little too close. Nevertheless, Liv is intrigued, and agrees to meet him again without telling her family. What awaits Liv at their meeting seems obvious to the reader, even though it shouldn’t be. Slowly, Liv opens up about being assaulted, and all the women in her family enter a collision course: they all want what’s best for Liv, but each of them has a different opinion as to what that is. Liv! is a choral reflection around a harsh, but necessary question: what would you do if it happened to you? Liv! is running for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year Award in the category Most Beautiful Cover for its stunning cover designed by Elina Warsta. In Finland, Liv! is published by Siltala.

Congratulations to all nominees, authors, publishers, and graphic designers – and fingers crossed!

Then Die Contentedly (Anna Glad #5) by Eva Frantz is travelling to Germany, where it will be published by Aufbau, who is publishing the rest of the series.

Thrilling news for German readers: Then Die Contentedly (Anna Glad #5) is travelling to Germany, where it will be published by Aufbau, who is publishing the rest of the series.

In Then Die Contentedly four women gather to spend an autumn evening together: Krisse, Hannele, Sylvia, and Britt got to know each other at the end of the 1990’s when they sang in the same student choir, and started the tradition of having a girls’ night every summer, with crayfish and snaps on the menu. It is a fancy crayfish party with all needed drinks, and the night is festive. But when day dawns, only two women wake up at the old house: one, Krisse, is dead and another, Sylvia, is missing. Anna Glad is supposed to stay off the case, but her instinct and her curiosity have the best of her, and she’s soon entangled in a complex case held together by a web of lies and blackmailing. Touching on subjects like domestic violence and alcoholism, Then Die Contentedly is a fast-paced detective story with plenty of twists and turns.

The Anna Glad series is a five-volume series following detective Anna Glad, a refreshingly relatable 30-something police detective whose private life and crime investigations have hooked readers in five countries, and sold over 100.000 copies in Finland.

Eva Frantz is an established Swedish-speaking author, whose production ranges from children’s novels to crime for adult readers. Her books have travelled to over 10 countries overall. In Finland, her works are published by Schildts & Söderströms.

Aufbau is a large German publishing whose list ranges from Nobel-winning authors like Han Kang to classics of international literature, to trending crime and romantasy titles.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Penelope and the Curious Clothing Commotion by Saara Kekäläinen and Reetta Niemensivu, Wept Another by Merja Mäki, and Christmas at the Falke Castle by Ann-Christin Antell are running for the Storytel Awards.

Storytel has published its list of nominees for the Storytel Awards, and we love to see several HLA titles making the list:  Wept Another by Merja Mäki, Christmas at the Falke Castle, one of the three novellas in Christmas at the Cotton Mill by Ann-Christin Antell, and Penelope and the Curious Clothing Commotion by Saara Kekäläinen & Reetta Niemensivu have been nominated in the categories of literary fiction, romance, and children’s literature.

Storytel Awards are given to books in the categories of literary fiction, crime and thriller, romance and feel-good, nonfiction and children’s literature on a yearly basis. The winners are chosen among the nominees by the users’ vote and by a professional jury, and will be announced on March 13th at the Storytel Awards Gala.

Wept Another follows Larja, a young woman from Eastern Karelia. It is 1942, and peace has momentarily descended on this bit of territory recently reclaimed from the Soviets by Finnish troops. Larja has been studying at a teacher training camp and upon her return to her home village she has to come to terms with the fact that nothing is as it was. Her grandmother Matja, the village’s most-respected professional lamenter, is deathly ill, and her little sister Pola carries a secret deep within her heart.

Their mother and father, carted off to a gulag years ago, are still missing. As Larja cares for her ailing grandmother, she listens to the messages the trees are sending her on the northern winds and discovers that she too has the gift of wailing. However, it requires great courage to accompany the dead to the other side, and she has been focusing on a career as a teacher. After a Finnish man steps into her life, Larja finds herself again torn between two different worlds. Wept Another is the story of a young woman who has grown up between two cultures on the border of two countries. It is a tale of roots and the ties that bind us, but above all, of the choices that you must make in life.

Christmas at the Cotton Mill is a festive collection of short stories set in the same fictional world as the successful Cotton Mill trilogy, which follows three generations of the Barker family throughout the decades.

Christmas at the Cotton Mill follows each of the three generations giving readers new insight into their family life, Christmas traditions, and backstory. In Christmas at the Falke Castle it is 1939 and Paula Falke (née Barker) is charged with planning Christmas for the whole family and the workers of the factory while her husband is fighting at the front. A happy ending seems impossible, but hope springs everlasting and the Falke family is in for a joyful Christmas after all.

In Penelope and the Curious Clothing Commotion Penelope is learning to get dressed by herself, but she has a sneaking suspicion that the clothes have it in for her. If she does not watch out, the knotted tights will bunch her in as well. Is there a gnome living in their house, one who nibbles a tissue sample off every sock and eats a sock from each pair? What if Penelope gets lost inside her clothes and pops out of a sleeve and into the wrong story? Or accidentally puts on Dad’s shirt and has to shave and go to work every morning?

Congratulations to all nominees, and fingers crossed!

The Mythicals series by Milla Westin and international bestseller Radio Popov by Anja Portin are now travelling to Vietnam, where they will be published by Kim Dong.

Wonderful news for our children’s list: the Vietnamese rights to The Mythicals series by Miila Westin and Radio Popov by Anja Portin have been sold to Kim Dong in a three-book deal.

The Mythicals series is a graphic novel series that beautifully blends together Finnish mythology, adventure, and stunning illustrations. In Endless Winter (Mythicals #1) we follow little Eevi, who is mourning the loss of her grandfather while snow continues to fall, even though it’s June. One day, after receiving a curious necklace from her grandmother, Eevi starts to see forest creatures, like Otso the gnome and the crop elves, whose existence she ignored. They know why winter seems to be endless, and have a plan to save spring that will lead them all the way to the Underworld. It’s their chance to save the spring, but is it also Eevi’s chance to bring Grandpa back?

In A Dangerous Dream (Mythicals #2) Eevi is lonely: after their successful adventure, none of her friends has been in touch, and no one believed her when she explained what happened. Then, one night Otso comes knocking at her window and asking for her help. His sister is sick, and Eevi’s necklace could be the key to saving her, so she goes along. But why does Eevi keep having scary dreams? And are they really just dreams?

Radio Popov by Anja Portin is one of the most successful children’s books of the last years: it won the Finlandia Junior upon its release, and has already travelled to 25 language territories. Radio Popov follows Alfred, a nine-year-old boy who lives virtually alone. His mother is not in the picture and his father is constantly busy with work and business trips. During one of these business trips Alfred is left alone for so long he runs out of food, and electricity is cut off.

When everything seems lost, Alfred is saved by a mysterious stranger who delivers food and woollen socks in lonely children’s letterboxes. It is the beginning of a wonderful adventure that will lead Alfred to a new family, and to saving more forgotten children. Alfred’s story is moving, and touches on social issues, but also contains joy, friendship, and a happy ending. The story, where children are left to their own devices with their problems in the face of absent or unhelpful adults is reminiscent of literary classics like the works of Astrid Lindgren and Roald Dahl.

Kim Dong is the leading publishing house in Vietnam and the largest publishing house for children’s literature, boasting over 1000 titles per year. The publisher provides a wide range of collections and genres, and has been co-operating internationally with, among others, HarperCollins UK, Simon and SchusterUK, Shogakukan Inc., and Seoul Publishing House.

Warm congratulations to the authors and the publisher!

Gustaf Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland: A Life in Geopolitics by Henrik Meinander is travelling to Armenia, where it will be published by Newmag.

Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland: A Life In Geopolitics, by Henrik Meinander, one of top Finnish historians today, is the best biography so far of Gustaf Mannerheim, known maybe most often as the War Marshal of Finland during the years of the Second World War. 

Mannerheim had a life with turns and twists like no other Finnish statesman, spanning from his days as an officer in the Russian army. Meinander weaves it together with the events of the old and new Europe and Russia that were in rapid change in the very years Mannerheim lived and worked. The reader gets a vivid picture of the international politics of the time and gets to also see Finland in a larger European context. The World English rights were acquired by Hurst, and the English edition has been praised by The Times and The Financial Times.

 

Henrik Meinander is 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 and head of the Finnish Institute in Stockholm.

Newmag is an Armenian publisher whose list specializes in bringing bestsellers and high-quality non-fiction literature, both Armenian and from all over the world.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!