Author: Anastasia

Virtual Frankfurt is coming to an end, but the results of it are only beginning to show now! We are thrilled to announce the first foreign rights deals for Anja Portin’s wonderful children’s novel Radio Popov: Estonian rights were sold to Ühinenud ajakirjad and Latvian rights to Janis Roze Publishers.

Portin’s new novel reminds of Roald Dahl’s classics, where children often experience quite miserable circumstances, but find refuge in friendships and partly magical worlds.

When a nine-year-old Alfred, who virtually lives alone, sets off in the company of the mysterious Sneak, who puts things through letter- boxes – not just newspapers, but apples, woollen socks and sandwiches – an unforgettable adventure begins that changes everything, and not just for Alfred. Sneak turns out to be the eccentric Amanda Lehtimaja, a paperwoman who is one of the Sharp Ears. At Amanda’s home Alfred finds an old radio transmitter designed by a Russian physicist, A. S. Popov. He starts making a secret, nightly radio broadcast that all the other forgotten children in the city listen to.

The book has received a lot of attention during the Frankfurt fair, and we expect more deals to follow soon.

Congratulations to the author!

We are so thrilled to announce that World English rights for the ghost and horror novel for the middle grade readers Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz were sold to Pushkin Press in the UK!

Pushkin Press is an established publisher with an impressive list of awarded adult and children’s titles. Pushkin Children had titles shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Books Prize the last four years in a row and this year won the Prize’s Older Readers category.  This year they also had Dutch bestseller Lampie by Annet Schaap shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal – the first time a book in translation has ever been shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious children’s book prize.

According to publisher Adam Freudenheim, Frantz’s book “has wonderful echoes of classic children’s books like The Secret Garden and yet is also undoubtedly very modern at the same time”, which will make it a perfect addition to Pushkin Children’s list.

Raspberry Hill was the first children’s book by Frantz, and an immediate success: not only it was received with an overwhelming enthusiasm by the small readers, it was also awarded the prestigious Runeberg Junior Prize in 2019. Frantz is otherwise known for her bestselling and award-winning crime series, focusing on the life of police investigator Anna Glad.

Pushkin Press has also recently published hilarious children’s verse book The Secret Life of Farts written by Malin Klingenberg and illustrated by Sanna Mander, and also represented by HLA. Frantz’s Raspberry Hill has previously been sold to Bulgaria.

Congratulations to the author and all the lucky readers and future fans of Raspberry Hill!

After years of discussing Finnish literature with agents and publishers from all over the world, we realised that it is still somewhat of an enigma to others: northern, but not Scandinavian; western, but unlike anything you will find in Germany, France, English world or anywhere else. So we decided to take the matter into our own hands.

This autumn, HLA launches a new podcast. In each episode spanning ca. 30 minutes, we will discuss the topic of the month with a studio guest and try to find out why indeed, literature from Finland is so unique. Above all, we hope to bring you joy, laughter and at least one new thing you didn’t know about Finland and its literature.

The release of the first episode is scheduled for Friday, the 23rd of October, and you will be able to find and subscribe it wherever you usually listen to your podcasts. You can also follow the podcast’s Facebook page or go check it out on our website, tab Podcast, to find the most recent episode updates.

In the meantime, we would like to thank our beloved and talented long-time collaborator Petri Latvala for the logo design and the young jazz star, drummer and music producer Alessandro D’Anna for the wonderful, atmospheric theme tune.

We are very excited (and nervous, to be honest!) and we hope you will join us every month as we sit down with the finest literary minds of Finland to discuss the qualities and quirks of Finnish literature and other literary topics!

At the end of a very busy Frankfurt week, we are thrilled to announce that the Estonian rights for Juhani Karila’s hilarious novel Fishing for the Little Pike was sold in auction to Hea Lugu!

Hea Lugu has been in the market for almost 20 years, and established itself as one of the leading publishers in the country known for its selection of quality fiction, eye-opening nonfiction and an exquisite list of children’s books.

It has previously published such internationally famous Finnish authors as Olli Jalonen, Joel Haahtela, Tove Jansson and Timo Parvela, and is proud to have such classics of world literature as Herman Hesse, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov and Aleksandr Solženytsin on its list.

Karila’s novel won The Kalevi Jäntti’s Literature Prize, Tähtifantasia Literature Prize and Jarkko Laine Literature Prize earlier this year, and is now nominated for the Tolkien Society in Finland Literary Prize. In addition to Estonia, the rights have been sold to Canada (World French), Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Poland.

Congratulations to the author and to the travelling little Pike!

We are thrilled to announce the first foreign rights sale for Kari Hotakainen’s new novel Story! Italian rights were sold to Iperborea.

As the publisher states: “In this novel, as always, Hotakainen has managed to point his critique towards many phenomena of our times in a very sharp and original way without ever losing his unique humour and rhythm, and his amazing talent for storytelling.”

Hotakainen’s novel received an overwhelming critical response and made news selling over 20,000 copies in just five weeks after the title was published in Finland.

Congratulations to the author, publisher and those lucky Italian readers!