Author: Chiara

The Skeleton by Malin Klingenberg and Maria Sann has been nominated for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. It is a clever picture book on overcoming fears, growing up, and getting better after an injury. The title has already been sold to three territories.

The Skeleton by Malin Klingenberg and Maria Sann has been nominated for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize: it tells the story of Teo, a young boy who is very afraid of skeletons and runs into one at a Halloween party. As a result, he runs in the opposite direction and falls, only to end up in hospital with a broken bone and the horrible news that there is a skeleton inside of him too.

It is the premise of a witty, funny story about overcoming fears, growing up, and recovering from injuries. The jury has stated as follows:

“Malin Klingenberg’s and Maria Sann’s picture book Skelettet (“The Skeleton”, not translated into English) is told from a supportive and sympathetic child’s perspective throughout. Teo struggles with understanding the skeleton as both reality and metaphor, as something that exists both outside and within himself. Based on his own imagination and in play, he tackles the existential questions these skeletons raise. The theme and the drama are firmly anchored in Teo’s view of life, and thus portray a child’s ability to understand and create meaning in life in their own way: “I wonder if my skeleton likes being in my body? I wonder if my skeleton also gets sweaty when I run? I wonder if my skeleton dreams of being able to scare people at an amusement park? I wonder if my skeleton will miss me when I die?

Klingenberg’s concise text and dynamic dialogue are surrounded by Sann’s thoughtful imagery. On the effectively blackened cover, Teo stands eye to eye with a grinning (or friendly smiling?) skeleton which is covered in phosphorescent paint and so glows in the dark. Darkness returns in the form of well-judged spreads where dark and light combine to create a fascinating X-ray effect, such as when Teo’s mother holds up her hand against the bedside lamp to show him that she also has a skeleton inside her. Sann seamlessly makes a picture book from the story by surprising readers with varied spreads, unexpected perspectives, and responsiveness to how the sensitive boy protagonist is portrayed. 

Skelettet is a seemingly simple picture book with the ability to evolve with repeated reading. Klingenberg and Sann handle the story’s existential themes with finesse. In a touching and child-friendly way, seriousness is interspersed with warm and playful comedy. As the cover of the picture book shows, we all carry a potential “monster” within us. Or at least a skeleton of our own that we can embrace and become friends with.”

Malin Klingenberg is an established Swedish-speaking Finnish authors, whose work has travelled to several territories. Illustrator Maria Sann made her debut in 2019 and has been receiving glowing reviews for her work since. This is their second collaboration.

The Skeleton has been sold for Latvian, Korean and World Dutch, and it is published in Finland by Schildts & Söderströms.

Congratulations to the authors and the publishers, and fingers crossed!

Juhani Karila‘s continues to make waves in the English-speaking world: the author of international bestseller Fishing For The Little Pike is joining the World Literature Festival panel dedicated to speculative fiction, at the NY Public City Library on April 23rd.

Also joining the panel are Danish author Olga Ravn and Japanese author Maru Ayase, and moderating the panel is Farhan Islam, the pen behind the Speculative Fiction in Translation Booklist published by the New York Public Library.

Fishing For the Little Pike (Siltala, 2019) follows young Elina as she returns to her home village in Lapland with a specific mission in mind: fishing for a little pike that resides in a pond. She has three days to fish it, or she and her childhood lover will both die, victims to a curse. This year, however, fate has gotten in the way in the form of a supernatural creature taking residence in the pond, and in that of a police officer looking for Elina on the suspicion of murder. Fishing For the Little Pike was an instant hit upon its release, and it has so far travelled to 17 language territories. In the English-speaking world it has been gathering excellent reviews and extensive coverage, and it has recently received an honourable mention for the Crawford Award and is running for the Forewords Indie Books of the Year Award.

Congratulations to the author and the publishers, and don’t miss out on this title!

Fantastic news for our authors: Ulla Donner’s The Natural Comedy, Miila Westin’s Endless Winter, Anu Kaaja‘s The Ribbon Bow and Antti Hurskainen’s A Wooden Prayer receive honorary mentions 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.

This year has brought our authors plenty of recognition: Ulla Donner’s The Natural Comedy, Miila Westin’s Endless Winter, Antti Hurskainen’s A Wooden Prayer and Anu Kaaja’s The Ribbon Bow received honorary mentions.

The Natural Comedy is Finlandia Comics award winner Ulla Donner’s third work, published in Finland by Schildts & Söderströms and distributed in Sweden by Galago. In The Natural Comedy, Ulla Donnertakes readers on a Dantean road trip in a Finnish forest, or rather what is left of it after mankind has wrought havoc on it. The sylvan fairytale grows into a hilarious satire about the Finns’ “special” relationship with nature. It is a tale about a society in which nature is subordinate to the human pursuit of profit and in which heaven and hell are only separated by how well each species manages to fit around people’s needs. The author also touches on xenophobia, comical features of young people’s dating rituals, and the societal terror of old age and hagsploitation in her characteristically wry manner. The Natural Comedy has been collecting glowing reviews in both Finland and Sweden, by critics and readers alike.

Endless Winter is the first volume in the Mythical Trilogy by Miila Westin, known for her illustrations of award-winning Radio Popov. In Endless Winter, it’s June and there’s a snowstorm. Nature has gone haywire, and no one knows what to do. Returning home from the funeral of her grandfather, 10-year-old Eevi runs into the guardian elf of barley. Eevi finds out the mystery behind the strange weather, and that if something isn’t done soon, winter will last forever: Eevi is thus drawn into a magical adventure with a group of elves.
Endless Winter begins the Mythical Trilogy, a series of graphic novels that introduces ancient Balto-Finnic folklore to children. The second book Dangerous Dreams will be out in spring 2024. 

A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen is published in Finland by Siltala and is nominated for its cover designed by graphic designer Aleksi Salokannel. A Wooden Prayer was also nominated for the Finlandia Prize, the Runeberg Prize, the Savonia Award and the Torch-Bearer Prize. 
A Wooden Prayer follows Turtola, the verger  in a small congregation in the countryside. He spends his days sawing wood, raking the churchyard, praying, and taking his five-year-old daughter Monika to the nursery.  Sirén, the vicar, is getting more and more dependent on alcohol whilst trying to write his doctorate and tolerate God’s silence. But then, Monika’s health takes a turn for the worse and Turtola is abruptly faced with an impossible choice. Turtola chooses mercy, and the consequences are merciless, resulting in a novel that asks big and difficult questions about ethos, life, death and religion. 

The rights have been so far been sold to Denmark and Hungary.

The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja,published in Finland by Kustantamo S&S, is nominated for the stunning work of its graphic designer Jenni Saari. The title is also nominated for the Adlibris Award and was one of this year’s nominees for the Runeberg Prize. It follows a heartbroken writer who sets out on a European trip in the style of the Grand Tour, visiting museums and enjoying art. The writer’s wanderings bring a fresh, at times irreverent perspective on some of the world’s most famous works of art and is a razor-sharp criticism of capitalism and the objectification of humans at the expense of the humanisation of objects. Everyday objects, like a bow, a coffee cup and a napkin, come to life and engage in conversation, while the human characters are difficult to reach and even harder to let go of.

Congratulations to the author and the publishers!

Passion, the newest novel by Pirkko Saisio, is now travelling to Poland, where it will be published by Poznanskie. The deal has been brought to us by our Polish co-agents at Book/Lab.

Passion, the newest novel by author Pirkko Saisio is travelling to Poland, where it will be published by Poznanskie. This is the third language territory for this Finlandia-nominated title, that has already travelled to Estonia and the Czech Republic. The deal has been brought to us by our Polish co-agents at Book/lab.

Pirkko Saisio made history earlier this year with the Helsinki Trilogy by becoming the first contemporary Finnish author whose work will be published in the Penguin Modern Classics.

Passion, is an enchanting tale with the atmosphere of an arcane legend, and a Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe centered on life’s purpose and the search for meaning.

In Passion, it is the 16th century, and Florence is in the immediate aftermath of religious fanatic Savonarola’s death, and the nobility can go back to its ways. The Princess Vasari is especially happy to be able to wear the beautiful necklace her husband has gifted her. It is no ordinary necklace, and there is no peace for its keeper. The jewel, which holds the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil travels from owner to owner, and country to country, to Krakow and further north, ultimately to Finland.

Poznanskie is one of the leading publishers is Poland and the publisher of, among others, Iida Turpeinen‘s Beasts of the Sea.

The acquiring editor at Poznanskie Paulina Surniak said: “Passion is a rich tapestry of stories and settings, linked by an almost mythical, symbolic object. An intriguing book that can be read at many different levels. I’m very excited and can’t wait for the Polish edition.”

The translator Sebastian Musielak commented: [Reading] Pirkko Saisio’s Passio is like taking a rest from our gloom, overly politicized reality and swallowing a huge pill of pure reading joy. For me, this is Saisio the Storyteller at her best, who can ideally temper her language to the content and touch the most potent themes of humankind – love, death, regeneration – with unnerving power of a myth. I am very happy that Wydawnictwo Poznańskie have heard me and chosen Passio for their exquisite Scandinavian Series / Seria skandynawska.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Edith Södergran’s biography by Agneta Rahikainen, the leading expert on Södergran’s poetry, is now travelling to Denmark, where it will be published by Turbine.

Edith Södergran was one of the greatest lyrical voices from Finland, and a modern classic. Her biography by Agneta Rahikainen, who with 30 years of research on Södergran is the leading expert in the field, is now travelling to Denmark, where it will be published by Turbine.

Edith Södergran (1892-1923) was one of the giants of the Swedish-speaking literature, and one of the first modernist writing in Swedish. With influences from Symbolism and Expressionism, she debuted at 24 with Dikter (“Poems”) and released four collections of poems during her life. Landet som icke är (“The Land that is not”) was released posthumously, after Södergran died aged only 31.

Södergran enjoyed worldwide fame and appreciation, and is a unique lyrical voice whose poetry is still gaining in popularity and status today: her writing has never stopped attracting attention, and there is a growing interest in her biography and persona.

In this biography by Agneta Rahikainen, we follow a fascinating narration of Södergran’s life story, from her upbringing in St Petersburg, to her passion for photography and her debut as an author, and then the time in sanatoria and eventually the in Raivola, Carelia, leading up to her death. Edith Södergran’s life was exceedingly short, but eventful and marked by the unruly times she lived in: the last days of Tsarist Russia, the war, and the outbreak of tuberculosis of the early 1900s. Her poetry enjoyed worldwide appreciation, and was translated into 27 languages.

Agneta Rahikainen (1963) is a literary scholar and non-fiction author, who has written two more books about Södergran and, among others, a book about syphilis (Smittans rike: Om syfilis i konst, kultur och kropp) published by the Swedish publisher Natur&Kultur.

Turbine is a publishing house based in Aarhus, founded in 2004. With an impressive over 400 titles a year, they have quickly earned a spot among the leading publishing houses in Denmark, and they have previously published Edith Södergran’s poems in Danish.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publisher!