News

Beasts of the Sea, the wildly successful debut of author Iida Turpeinen, continues to stun the international publishing scene. The title is now travelling to Japan and the Arabic world, marking 22 language territories.

Stunning news for our fiction list: Beasts of the Sea, the literary sensation from Finland of 2023 by author Iida Turpeinen, continues to enchant publishers all over the world. The rights have now been acquired for both Japanese and World Arabic, marking 22 language territories for this title.

The Japanese rights have been acquired by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, one of Japan’s leading publishers of books, in a deal brought to us by Tuttle Mori Literary Agency. Kawade Shobo Shinsha have over a century of experience in the publishing industry, having started in 1886. They have since then been the home of domestic bestsellers like Amy Yamada’s “Bed Time-Eyes” (1985) and Machi Tawara’s “Salad Memorial Day”(1987) and of international authors of high profile like Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Vladmir Nabokov, and Desmond Morris, among others.

The World Arabic rights have been acquired by Al Arabi, an Egypt-based publishing house that is the home to a wide range of international authors, from Frantz Kafka, Peter Handke and Herman Koch to Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Jon Gnarr and many others, including fellow Finnish authors Sofi Oksanen and Juhani Karila.

Beasts of the Sea is a spellbinding story of long-gone species and human destinies where an unknown sirenian is discovered by biologist Georg Vilhelm Steller, who plans on bringing its skeleton to Europe to study it, until fate gets in the way: Steller dies before succeeding, and the sea cow goes extinct in a mere couple of decades due to human greed. Thus begins the quest for the skeleton of this lost creature, in an attempt to bring back what mankind has destroyed.

Beasts of the Sea has enchanted readers and critics in Finland, where it also won the Helsingin Sanomat literary prize for the best debut last autumn, and publishers everywhere, receiving extensive attention and media coverage even internationally.

Author Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen has now been sold to Denmark, marking the 2nd foreign territory for this title, which has received four literary prize nominations over the last few months.

Fantastic news for our fiction list: A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen is travelling to Denmark, where it will be published by Jensen & Dalgaard.

A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen has received extensive attention domestically, with four literary prize nominations and praising reviews. The book was a Finlandia Prize nominee, and a Torch-bearer Prize nominee this autumn, and it is still running for both the Runeberg Prize and the Savonia Award. The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper has reviewed it as an“intellectually stimulating novel glows with negativity. […] A Wooden Prayer is a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.”

The novel has already travelled to Hungary, where it will be published by Polar.

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. The two have topics to talk about: the director Ingmar Bergman, theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, arson in Kiihtelysvaara’s church, public displays of apology and the comedy of the grim reaper.

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.

Jensen & Dalgaard is a Danish independent publishing house which has rapidly become the Danish home of many highly praised and well-loved Finnish authors such as Matias Riikonen, Anu Kaaja, Leena Krohn and Pauliina Rauhala.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Rival to the Cotton Mill, the 3rd volume in the Cotton Mill Trilogy by Ann-Christin Antell, has been ranked in the top 10 most listened books of 2023 on Bookbeat Finland. In Sweden the 2nd volume, Heir To The Cotton Mill, has just been welcomed on Storytel Sweden. The series, sold to five countries so far, has been a sensational bestseller in Finland.

Wonderful news for our author Ann-Christin Antell: the wildly successful Cotton Mill Trilogy has been confirmed as a readers’ favourite and the third book in the series, Rival to the Cotton Mill, in ranked in the Top 10 of the year’s most listened books on Bookbeat for 2023.

In Sweden, Heir To The Cotton Mill (Swedish title: Bomullsfabrikens arvtagare) has just been welcomed after the fantastic success of the first volume.

The Cotton Mill Trilogy has been a sensational bestseller in Finland, with over 140.000 sold copies in Finland alone, proving that entertainment and quality are not mutually exclusive. This masterfully constructed series follows three generations of women, from the late 1800s leading up to the Roaring Twenties, skilfully combining romance, Finnish history, the fight for workers’ rights and feminism.

The Shadow of the Cotton Mill depicts the life of an independent woman, Jenny Malmström, in an era when industrialists make up the new elite, women demand equality, and Finland’s status as a nation is undergoing a transformation.

Heir to the Cotton Mill picks up the story of the Barker family that began in The Shadow of the Cotton Mill. It is now the early 20th century, and Finland’s cultural elite, with their strong sense of nationhood, find themselves at odds with Russia’s increasingly oppressive policies. Meanwhile, social mobility and working-class ideologies are on the rise.

Rival to the Cotton Mill is the final book of the Cotton Mill trilogy about the Barker family. It is the modern era of jazz and progress, and Jenny’s granddaughter and Martta’s daughter Paula has gained her position as the advertising manager of the mill. Times are changing, but fortunately there seems to be love left for the young ones, too.

So far, the Cotton Mill Trilogy has traveled to Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Warm congratulations to the author, and don’t miss out on this series!

Dear friends,

What a wonderful year it has been, thank you all! It is now time to get into the festive spirit, and have a well-deserved restful holiday: Helsinki Literary Agency will be closed on week 52, and will reopen in January 2024.

Wishing you a lovely festive season, and very much looking forward to a brilliant 2024,

Viivi & the HLA Team

Leena Krohn’s The Pelican’s New Clothes and Mathematical Creatures have been acquired in a two-book deal for the Danish rights by Jensen & Dalgaard.

Stunning news for our fiction list: Leena Krohn’s The Pelican’s New Clothes and Mathematical Creatures are travelling to Denmark, where they will be published by Jensen & Dalgaard.

In The Pelican’s New Clothes, a pelican lands on a beach and becomes fascinated by the way humans live. The bird dresses like a human, gets an apartment, finds work at the opera, falls in love, lives just like anyone else. Grown-ups don’t notice anything, but children see right through the pelican’s disguise. Before long, the pelican meets its neighbor, ten-year-old Emil, who has recently moved to the city with his mother. Emil comes to serve as the pelican’s guide into the world of humans. 

Originally published in 1976, The Pelican’s New Clothes is a classic of Finnish children’s literature: an enchanting fantasy adventure touching to readers of all ages. It is a story of two strangers who meet in the big city and become friends, a story of dreams, disappointments, and joy. The Pelican’s New Clothes has been translated into fourteen languages and adapted for the screen as a full-length movie.

Mathematical Creatures, or Shared Dreams is a collection of twelve short, fantastical stories exploring the basis of human identity and human choices, knowledge and ignorance, mortality and immortality.

The narrator delves in the questions of visible reality and existence. Around her, there are strange creatures, such as gorgonoids, tubanide, pacmantis and lissajoune, which look like aliens and act as if they were from science fiction. Instead, they simulate certain physiological principles of the earth. And when the narrator compares a gorgonoid with a human, the underlying question is if spirit is just a mathematical equation.

Mathematical Creatures, or Shared Dreams was awarded Finland’s most important literary award, Finlandia Prize.

Jensen & Dalgaard is a beautiful Danish independent publishing house that publishes books for both adults and children, with a particular eye for unusual themes and literary perspectives. They are the Danish home of other HLA titles like Heavensong by Pauliina Rauhala, Matara by Matias Riikonen and REC by Marisha Rasi-Koskinen among others.

Warmest congratulations!