Author: Chiara

Beasts of the Sea, the record-breaking debut novel by Iida Turpeinen read by Marcus Bäckman on Storytel, is this year’s winner of the Storytel Award in the category literary fiction.

The Storytel Award jury consisted of author and producer Jenni Pääskysaari, screen writer Reeta Ruotsalainen and Evita Lestinen, chief editor of one of Finland’s most popular media. All three share a background in media and literature, and have stated that their decision was unanimous and motivated as follows:

“The work is literature and literary art at its best. In it a skilful, first-class word use is paired with clear thinking and social commentary without being preachy. In and in between the lines there is a huge amount of background research, and the researched information is beautifully woven into the artful prose of the story and the ideas of the main characters.

Three centuries of unfolding narrative does not bow to history or its characters. It holds its grip without gimmickry. Not twists and turns and drama for the sake of twists and turns and drama, but the drama is created by the dialogue between past, present and future that inevitably starts up inside the reader and the listener. The work evokes powerful emotions and thoughts, and not all of them are easy and positive.

This world-class work is an ode to science, art and the preservation of nature. The climate crisis and the human-induced sixth mass extinction are haunting, as they should be. But alongside the irritation, frustration, anxiety and sadness, there is hope in the listening and reading experience. Awakening and awareness are the first steps on the road to change and action, and that is the path the work guides the audience along.”

The other winners were Rósa & Björk by Satu Rämö (crime), Aleksi from Finland by Tuomas Kyrö (non-fiction), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (romance) and “My Amazing Life” by Mandimai Sundberg (children’s).

Beasts of the Sea quickly became the most internationally successful debut from Finland in autumn 2023. It has currently travelled to 22 language territories, and continues to attract attention from critics, publishers and readers all over the world. In the book, the lives of people across three centuries are tied together by Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian mammal lost to extinction. In Finland, the book is published by Kustantamo S&S.

Warmest congratulations to the authors and the publishers!

Beasts of the Sea, the hot book of autumn 2023 now sold to 22 language territories, has won the Blogistania Award.

Every year Finnish literature bloggers, bookstagrammers and booktubers are invited to weigh in and choose the best book of the past year: this time their clear favourite has been Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen.

The Blogistania Award is a yearly award for four different categories: best domestic book, best foreign book in translation, best non-fiction book, and best children’s and YA book.

Beasts of the Sea brought home the Blogistania Finlandia Award, for the best domestic book, while for the other categories Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, Tommi Kinnunen & Minna Rytisalo’s latest non-fiction and J. S. Meresmaa’s and Leena Paasio’s latest works were awarded the respective prizes.

Beasts of the Sea is the ground-breaking debut novel of author and researcher Iida Turpeinen and it weaves together science and world-class literature: its red thread is a now extinct beast of the sea, Steller’s sea cow, and we follow the lives of the people who, over the course of three centuries, were on its tracks to try and give back to humanity a piece of nature otherwise lost forever.

Beasts of the Sea, published in Finland by publishing house S&S, has written Finnish literary history on the international arena, as its rights were quickly sold to over dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. The rights have currently been sold to 22 territories.

The book quickly became a critics’ favourite as well: it was awarded the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for the best debut, and it was nominated for the Finlandia Award, the Adlibris Award, and the Torch-Bearer Prize.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

More amazing news for Fishing For the Little Pike by Juhani Karila: the book has been featured in the top 10 Bestseller list at Warwicks Bookstore, an iconic indie bookstore in San Diego, California.

American readers are increasingly fascinated with Juhani Karila‘s Fishing For The Little Pike: after receiving an honourable mention for the Crawford Award and a nomination for the Foreword Indie Book of the Year Award, the book has been ranked in the top 10 best-selling titles of the iconic indie bookstore Warwicks, in San Diego, California.

In the list Karila is in the great company of, among others, the Man Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, with his Prophet Song, Yangsze Choo, James McBride and Paulo Coelho.

Fishing For the Little Pike is Juhani Karila’s debut novel and it follows Elina Ylijaako, a young woman who is under the spell of a curse that forces her to travel back to her home village in the Finnish Lapland to fish a specific pike from a specific pond every year, or she and her childhood love will die. This year, however, the supernatural gets in the way in the form of a mythological creature haunting the pond, all while a detective is on her trail as she is suspected of murder. Funny, surprisingly wise and proudly weird, Fishing For the Little Pike was an instant hit upon its release, and it has so far travelled to 17 language territories. In Finland, it is published by Siltala, and in the US it is distributed by Restless Books.

Warm congratulations!

Light and Flame by Ulla-Lena Lundberg is travelling to Croatia, where it will be published by Hena, the publisher of Lundberg’s Finlandia winning title Ice.

Fantastic news from Croatia: Hena will be publishing Light and Flame by Ulla-Lena Lundberg.

In Light and Flame, it is August 1852, and the city of Vaasa on Finland’s west coast has burned to the ground. The Swedish-speaking maid Betty can no longer find work and, although she possesses neither money nor fluency in Finnish, sets out on foot to seek a livelihood in the capital.

Betty’s trek begins a three-generation trip through the stormy years of Finland’s transformation into a nation, as successive Russification, independence, and civil war throw society into turmoil.

The new nation is also an educational project. Betty’s daughter Olga becomes a teacher, and Olga’s husband Robert the headmaster of a uniquely Nordic phenomenon, the folk high school. Impassioned conversation by impassioned conversation, the worker’s rights’ movement and cultural and educational movements wage battle on behalf of an independent Finland.

Whereas men stagger and are trampled beneath their ideologies, women stay standing, work, tend to their families, doubt, hope, and love.

Hena is based in Zagreb and boasts a list of authors that includes some of the most significant Croatian and foreign writers, such as Ante Tomić, Stjepo Martinović, Mary Novosel, Pero Kvesić, Marina Vujčić, Umberto Eco, Peter D’Adamo, Amos Oz, Don DeLillo, Ken Bruen, Elif Shafak, Louise Penny, Ahmet Umit, Ayfer Tunc, Michela Murgia, Ece Temelkuran, Jana Benova. Hena is also the Croatian home of the Finlandia award-winning title Ice by Ulla-Lena Lundberg, and the two titles will be part of the same series.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Fishing For the Little Pike by Juhani Karila, published with the title Summer Fishing in Lapland by Pushkin Press, has been awarded an honorary mention for the Crawford Award. Karila’s novel received extensive media coverage in the English-speaking world, and it has traveled to 17 language territories so far.

Fishing For The Little Pike by Juhani Karila, published in the UK by Pushkin Press with the title Summer Fishing in Lapland and in the US by Restless Books, continues to attract attention and accolades in the English-speaking world. The book has received an honourable mention for the IAFA Crawford Award, a yearly award for outstanding writers whose first fantasy book was published during the previous calendar year. 

The award takes its name from William L. Crawford, a US publisher who produced the first full-size book as a publisher specialising in sci-fi and fantasy. Crawford honorees have gone on to win a dozen World Fantasy Awards and numerous more awards. The majority of Crawford Award honorees are based in the US, but a few authors from different parts of the world are counted in their midst.

Fishing For the Little Pike is also a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, in the category Literary Fiction. Foreword Reviews is a US-based platform dedicated to discovering, reviewing, and sharing the work of independent publishers, and it assigns on a yearly basis a literary award for fiction, non fiction, children’s literature and general works.

Fishing For the Little Pike is Juhani Karila’s debut novel and it follows Elina Ylijaako, a young woman who is under the spell of a curse that forces her to travel back to her home village in the Finnish Lapland to fish a specific pike from a specific pond every year, or she and her childhood love will die. This year, however, the supernatural gets in the way in the form of a mythological creature haunting the pond, all while a detective is on her trail as she is suspected of murder. Funny, surprisingly wise and proudly weird, Fishing For the Little Pike was an instant hit upon its release, and it has so far travelled to 17 language territories. In Finland, it is published by Siltala.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publishers!