Author: Urpu Strellman

The success of Pirkko Saisio’s awarded trilogy which has recently been known as the “Helsinki Trilogy” is continuing: the North American English rights have been acquired by Two Lines Press.

Two Lines fell for Saisio’s works already a year ago when they acquired the third, Finlandia Prize winning novel Red Book of Farewells (2003), which is to come out in English in April 2023. Now the press has acquired the other two stand-alone titles of the trilogy, too: The Lowest Common Multiple (1988) and The Backlight (2000), thanks to our wonderful co-agent Elianna Kan from Regal | Hoffman & Associates.

Late last year, the whole trilogy was pre-empted in the Netherlands by De Geus, in France by Robert Laffont and this year in Germany by Klett-Cotta. In Hungary, the trilogy is published by Polar.

Two Lines Press is an award-winning press committed to publishing outstanding literature in translation with a focus on overlooked classics and exceptional new writing.

Pirkko Saisio’s Autofictional trilogy is one of the masterpieces in Finnish literature. Each novel was nominated for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, the last one finally taking the prize. The latest nomination for Saisio, who has during her long career received numerous literary awards, came only last year from her bestselling novel Passion – a color-saturated, Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe.

Read also news about
the Dutch pre-empt
the French pre-empt
the German pre-empt.

Pre-empted late last year in France by Robert Laffont and in the Netherlands by De Geus, Saisio’s legendary trilogy travels now to Germany.

Pirkko Saisio’s Autofictional trilogy – The Lowest Common Multiple (1998); The Backlight (2000) and The Red Book of Farewells (2003) – is one of the masterpieces in Finnish literature. Each novel was nominated for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, the last one finally taking the prize.

The latest nomination for Saisio, who has during her career received numerous literary awards, came only last year from her bestselling novel Passion – a color-saturated, Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe.

The Editorial Director for literary fiction at Klett-Cotta, Corinna Kroker, stated about the trilogy:

“I’ve not come across such beautiful, stunning prose for a long time. (…)

Saisio chooses carefully what to say and what not to say. She therefore opens the room of words to deeper layers of meaning – which I admire. Her prose breathes in its own rhythm and takes the reader on a journey of language and silence. (…)

So many of the topics which Pirkko Saisio touches with her prose are more than relevant today – feminism, class, sexuality – but there’s more to it. Relationships or love are no longer personal topics. Saisio is brilliant in exploring how individuality and society, even class, always go hand in hand.

And look the structure! Saisio works with overlapping layers that reflect the quest of the narrator so incredibly well. The quest for love, for identity, for belonging and for a life as a writer.”

Klett-Cotta is not only one of the most prestigious publishing houses in Germany, but also the oldest: it was also the publisher of such authors as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Today, Klett-Cotta publishes, among others, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bernardine Evaristo, Anna Burns, and Steve Sem-Sandberg.

Saisio’s autofictional trilogy is published in Hungarian by Polar. The Red Book of Farewell’s will be published in the North American area by Two Lines Press. Earlier, it has been published in Slovenian and Swedish.

Read also news about the Dutch pre-empt and the French pre-empt.

Since June 2021, Helsinki Literary Agency is proud to represent the rights of Eppu Nuotio’s adult fiction.

Eppu Nuotio is one of the most successful Finnish authors mixing feel good and crime in her novels, latest in her bestselling 3-book cozy mystery series Ellen Lähde Investigates and before that in her 6-book series starred by young journalist Pii Marin.

As perfect summer reading, we are happy to highlight the Ellen Lähde Investigates books.

In the series of three stand-alone novels Those Deadly Bells (2017), Tongues Like Knives (2019) and The Showy Strangler (2020) the modern day Miss Marple, Ellen Lähde enjoys her early retirement, friends, new love and gardening – and with an insatiable curiosity, pokes her nose into everything. Bestsellers in Finland, the novels have charmed the readers with their fresh and joyful approach to even the most mundane things there are in our daily lives.

In addition to feel good, romance and crime Nuotio (b. 1962) has written novels for children. She has also become known as a playwright, with great success also in Germany, where she lived for several years before moving back to Finland.

Rahva Raamat has acquired the Estonian rights of Vuokko Hurme’s three-part middle-grade series: Upside Down, Right-Side Up and About-Turn.

Rahva Raamat is the Estonian publisher of such children’s authors as David Walliams, Jeff Kinney, Erin Hunter and J.K. Rowling.

Rotation series has been praised for its unique idea: what would happen if the world turned upside down – if the gravity would make everything fall into the sky? How could you keep on living in a world where you are all the time facing the danger of falling down? And where does everything fall to – is there something beneath the Sky?

Mind-boggling, smart and heartfelt, Vuokko Hurme’s Rotation series is an adventure, a story of a friendship and a praise to writing: the narrator of the three novels is 8-year-old Lenna, who is writing down the exciting turns of her family and her friend, Jaan.

Read more about the books from the links: Upside Down, Right-Side Up, About-Turn.

Kari Hotakainen’s #1 bestselling Story has been acquired by Dybbuk in the Czech Republic, Polar in Hungary and Petergailis in Latvia.

The number 1 bestseller with over 30,000 copies sold between mid-August 2020 and January 2021, Kari Hotakainen’s Story has been previously sold to Iperborea in Italy.

Kari Hotakainen has been awarded for his previous works with the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, Finland’s biggest literary award the Finlandia Prize, the Prix du Courrier International and the Prix Coup du Coeur, amongst others. His first nonfiction book, The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) is the best-selling Finnish nonfiction work of all times with over 200,000 sold copies in Finland and over 100,000 abroad. 

Story has been described as slyly moving and wildly funny; in it, the countryside has been turned into a Recreation Area, and everyone has been made to live in the City. As there is not enough housing for everyone, a brutal playoff begins. Who can tell the most attractive story and make their lives seem interesting and get an apartment?