Author: Urpu Strellman

The Bologna fair just over and the London fair right around the corner, we are happy to share some highlights of our spring catalogues (you can check them as a whole here)!

LITERARY FICTION list is pouring with both awarded authors as new voices.

HEADLAND
Finlandia Prize 2017

Juha Hurme’s HEADLAND, latest Finlandia Prize winner with the printrun of the amazing 100,000 copies is a cultural history of the peninsula that later became known as Finland – from the Big Bang till year 1809, told in the breakneck style of Juha Hurme.

 

 

 

MOTHER OF ALL LOSSES
Runeberg Prize 2016

Marjo Niemi’s MOTHER OF ALL LOSSES, latest Runeberg Prize winner is a frantic monologue from a daughter to a mother that carries the reader with its unique rythm to the feelings of shame and guilt – a book infuriatingly funny and deeply touching at the same time.

 

 

 

BEFORE MY HUSBAND DISAPPEARS
from the winner of European Union Prize for Literature

Selja Ahava’s BEFORE MY HUSBAND DISAPPEARS is the new novel of the author of European Union Prize of Literature winning Things that Fall from the Sky that has been sold to 16 countries so far. With her unique voice Ahava tells a story of a lives that start to change from one sentence.

 

 

COMMERCIAL FICTION list is growing both on the crime and the cozy side! These two are on the not too cozy side, though…

VANTAA – LARGE BLUE
Hardboiled crime from Finland’s New Jersey

J.P. Pulkkinen’s LARGE BLUE is a hard boiled crime novel located in Vantaa – the rough-edged boomtown just a bit north of Helsinki where the crimes seem to have roots that go deep in the city’s past. With crystal clear language, well-build characters and a plot that pulls you in like quicksand Pulkkinen, established as a novelist, makes his entrance to the scene of crime fiction – and straight to the top.

 

BORDERTOWN – ENDGAME

J.M. Ilves’ ENDGAME is the second book of BORDERTOWN crime series set at the border between Finland and Russia.  Story: A dead man on a boat. The detective’s daughter covered with blood. A cat and mouse play with the serial killer about to begin…

Broadcasted by Netflix in several areas, the television series has been sold to over 40 countries and is boosted by the new season coming out first in Finland already in the autumn.

 

NONFICTION highlights are a show of real Finnish lifestyle, obviusly resulting into Finland being the happiest country in the world!

KALSARIKÄNNI – PANTSDRUNK
Finnish path to relaxation, sold to 11 countries so far!

Miska Rantanen’s PANTSDRUNK, KALSARIKÄNNI – The Finnish Path to Relaxation has been sold to 11 countries. The book came out in Finnish in February, and the English translation is soon to be in the USA, published by HarperCollins.

The story in short: where the Danes have hygge and the Swedes have lagom, the Finns have kalsarikanni – pantsdrunk: drinking home alone in your underwear.

 

SAUNA PEOPLE
Why the Finns are Always in Sauna?

Heli and Ville Blåfield make a different kind of a venture into the Finnish well-being with SAUNA PEOPLE, a book that tells why the Finns are always in the sauna.

Why is going to sauna so essential in Finland, and how come this introverted people suddenly change when they get naked?

 

CHILDREN’S FICTION list is out too – the first one in HLA history!

THE LOST KEY
Finlandia Junior Prize 2018

Sanna Mander’s THE LOST KEY, the latest Finlandia Junior Prize winner, is a charming, rhyming picture book about different people all living in an apartment building.

With colours and smart illustrations Mander shows that actually all of us are different in one way or another.

 

 

 

THE PEARL FISHER
Runeberg Junior Prize 2018
Nominee for Nordic Council’s Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize 2018

Karin Erlandsson’s THE PEARL FISHER, the latest Runeberg Junior Prize winner and a nominee for the Nordic Council Children’s Book Prize is set in the kingdom of stories, where the most powerful and most dangerous legend is the story of the Eye Gemstone…

An adventure without comparison, the book grows to a grand tale of friendship, longing and what truly matters in life.

 

 

Karin Erlandsson’s THE PEARL FISHER, a children’s novel set in a magical underwater world, has been nominated for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize in both Finland’s and Åland’s categories. Just in February THE PEARL FISHER was awarded the Runeberg Junior Prize, often considered the second most prestigious literature prize in Finland.

THE PEARL FISHER is a story set in a world in which colorful pearls are the most important currency. Miranda is the most skillful pearl fisher of all, and she believes she can find the pearl that everyone wants: the mythical eye gemstone. It’s been said that the one who finds this precious stone will never have to want for anything again, and generation after generation people have abandoned their families to find it.

But when a babbling little girl Syrsa comes along to the hunt the adventure suddenly takes a dangerous turn. In the end Miranda has to decide what she really wants – and what is truly important in life.

The novel, published in July 2017, was chosen as the winner of a children’s novel competition organized by Schildts & Söderströms Publishers in 2016, with children’s author Martin Widmark in the jury. In February 2018 the novel won the Runeberg Junior Prize and it was revealed that the story will grow to a four-book series called Song of the Eye Gemstone. The second part of the series, The Bird Master, will be published in the autumn of 2018.

The Pearl Fisher was published in Swedish by Schildts & Söderströms and in Finnish translation  by Kustantamo S&S. 

Karin Erlandsson (b. 1978) works as a culture reporter in Åland. Her first novel Mink Farm (2014) was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Misdeed (2016) was her first crime novel, and The Pearl Fisher her first children’s novel.

London book fair starts in just a couple of weeks! You’ll find us in the International Rights Centre, table 3h – see you there!

 

Carlos da Cruz’ colourful ANIMAL SCALEBOOK has been sold to the French publishing house Circonflexe.

Circonflexe is a children’s and young adult publishing house with a broad list of quality titles from both French and international authors.

Miska Rantanen’s KALSARIKÄNNI – PANTSDRUNK: The Finnish Path to Relaxation has been sold to Paseka in Czech Republik and Ad est dell’equatore in Italy.

Paseka is the publisher of many established Czech and international authors including Timothy Garton Ash, Alice Munro, Vladimir Nabokov, Amos Oz, Salman Rushdie, Roberto Saviano and John Updike.

Ad est dell’equatore is a small but ambitious independent publisher from Naples. Founded in 2008, the publishing house has focused on short stories and biografies and other nonfiction titles.