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Light Light Light has been awarded the Best Feature Film Award at the Exgrund Filmfest in Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Queer Film of the Year Award here in Finland. The film is based on the award-winning novel with the same title by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen.

Brilliant news for Light Light Light by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen: the film based on the novel has been released in October, and the accolades are already coming in.

Light Light Light was awarded the Best Feature Film Award and the Audience Award at the Exground Filmfest in Wiesbaden, Germany. The jury have motivated their choice as follows:

“The film manages to relate the typical themes of coming-of-age genres, like first true love, loss and problems within the family, in an original and innovative way. This is especially evident in the Chernobyl symbolism, the haunting soundtrack and the nostalgic flashbacks.

The use of lighting is also brilliant. Scenes where one would rather look away are illuminated in glistening bright light. The way the most emotional scenes unfold mesmerises the viewer visually. It is this masterful treatment of the themes of trauma and abuse as well as the magnificent actors that make this film an absolute ‘must-watch’ for us.”

Light Light Light is the story of two explosions: the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl, and first love. It is the summer of 1986, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has exploded, and Maria is a teenage girl who lives in a small town with her family. Everything in Maria’s life changes when she meets the radiant Mimi. Mimi lives with her grandmother, aunt, and two great-uncles in a household they refer to as Mayhem. A fierce, passionate, desperate love flares up between Maria and Mimi. Hot summer days at the beach and ’80s hits mingle with death, old age, illness, and fear of radioactive fallout. But the girls’ lives are filled with light light light.

Light Light Light also won the Queer Film of the Year Award, a recognition awarded on a yearly basis by the student organisation Qaareva.

Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen’s Finlandia Junior Prize-winning Light Light Light is a heart wrenching romance and a story of impossible choices made at the age of fourteen. The protagonist Mariia hates to write, so she tells her story in ways that surprise the reader and give the book depth.

The award-winning movie Light Light Light is directed by Inari Niemi, produced by Lucy Loves Stories and distributed by Nordisk Film Finland. You can watch the trailer here.

Warmest congratulations, and don’t miss out on this title!

The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja, A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen and Harry Salmenniemi’s latest novel have been nominated for the Runeberg Prize. The winner will be announced in February 2024.

Amazing news for our fiction list: The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja, A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen and Harry Salmenniemi‘s latest novel have been nominated for the Runeberg Prize.

The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja is a deliciously pink and proudly art-oriented novel, where a writer is looking for intellectual, physical and spiritual enjoyment in European cities in the spirit of a contemporary Grand Tour. She sits in cafés, dances in clubs, goes to meet paintings, and engages in animated conversations with objects: the soul of things should not be belittled. Anu Kaaja’s fourth book is a sensual and analytical novel, a profound and playful paean to beauty and melancholy, a work that does not distinguish between a fetish club and an art museum. It is a an inspired portrait of objectifying people and anthropomorphising objects. The Ribbon Bow is a sweet wrapped in a critique of capitalism, resulting in an amusing experience and a sharp outlook on our day and age. 

Anu Kaaja is a young, award-winning author. With her debut Metamorphoslip in 2015 she was shortlisted for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. Since then, she was awarded the Kalevi Jäntti Literature Prize in 2020 and for her other works, Kaaja has been nominated for the Runeberg Prize (2017) and awarded the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize. 

For A Wooden Prayer this is the fourth nomination: the book has also been nominated for the Torch-Bearer Prize, the Finlandia Award and is running for the Savonia Award. A Wooden Prayer follows Turtola, the verger in a little congregation and the single father of a five-year-old girl, Monika. Turtola spends his days having long conversations with the vicar and taking care of the church. Things take a rapid turn for the worse when weird occurrences start disturbing the peace of the community and Monika is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Faced with a terrible dilemma, Turtola chooses mercy, and the consequences are merciless.

The novel, published in Finland by Siltala, has been dubbed “a catechism of our time” and “a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.” So far, the rights have been acquired in Hungary by Polar.

The Runeberg Prize is a a prestigious literary prize named after the Finnish national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is one of the most important literary awards in Finland, second only to Finlandia Prize. The prize, worth 20,000 euros, is given out in two categories: fiction and children’s books. Last year the award went to our very own Marja Kyllönen with The Undeparted, and before that to Marisha Rasi-Koskinen with REC and for children’s fiction to Karin Erlandsson with The Night Express.

Warm congratulations to the authors, and fingers crossed!

Death Comes for The Dead by the author duo Rainio & Rautaheimo has been nominated for the Clew of the Year Award. Also the first book in the series, The Dead Still Speak, received a nomination for the award in 2021.

Death Comes for the Dead by Sari Rainio and Juha Rautaheimo has been nominated for the Clew of the Year Award by the Finnish Whodunnit Society.

Death Comes for the Dead is the second volume in the Mortui non silent series, which follows detective Ville Karila and pathologist Viola Kaario as they solve crimes. This time the case starts with a surprise, as the murder victim turns out to be registered dead already ten years prior to the murder.

As the noose tightens around the murderer, old secrets are unveiled, and shadows from the past come out to hunt the living.

Sari Rainio and Juha Rautaheimo are an author duo writing shamelessly nostalgic murder mysteries. Rainio is the editorial director of Siltala Publishing and a crime novel geek; Rautaheimo has worked as an investigator and investigative lead in the Violent Crimes unit for a total of forty years.

The Clew of the Year Award is a yearly award given by the Finnish Whodunnit Society to an outstanding work of crime fiction. Also the first book of the series, The Dead Still Speak, was nominated for the award in 2021.

Storm and Light is the beautiful story of the friendship between two children who couldn’t be more different. It is Ilja Karsikas’ third book, and the nomination comes only a week after Karsikas received an honorary mention for the Rudolf Koivu Prize with his second book, The Unicorn.

We’re so excited to share that Storm and Light by llja Karsikas is a nominee for the Arvid Lydecken Prize!

Storm and Light is the story of two best friends who couldn’t be more different: one, Storm, dreams of seeing the world, while the other, Light, prefers daydreaming and imagination as means of exploration. Storm and Light is a tender story of friendship and love. The individual stories of the characters interlace, and big questions of love and human connection overlap aphoristically with shared memories of lovely summer day.

The jury have motivated their choice as follows:

“A beautiful little story about two very different friends: one of them dreams of going out into the world, while the other prefers to stay at home. The work, written in a rich and poetic language is a beautiful portrait of differences and their ability to complement each other. Karsikas has written a timeless story about leaving and staying, about deep friendship that draws one back from the ends of the world.”

The Arvid Lydecken Prize has been awarded since 1969 and is assigned to an outstanding children’s book and the winner is chosen by the Finnish Children’s Books Authors’ Association.

Ilja Karsikas (b. 1978) is an illustrator and graphic designer known for his conversation-sparking children’s books. Storm and Light (spring 2023) follows several picture books, including The Unicorn (2022) and Under the Moon (2020), a collaboration with Aki-Pekka Sinikoski. In addition to his visual work, Karsikas creates music and is involved in any number of artistic projects.

Very warm congratulations to Ilja and the other nominees, and fingers crossed!

The best Finnish debut of 2023 – that is, the winner of Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize – Beasts of the Sea, has reached 20 language areas with its most recents sales to the Czech Paseka, Lithuanian Alma Littera and Albanian Muza, and an offer on the table for the Arabic rights.

The latest publishers for Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea are well-known publishers from Czech Republic, Lithuania and Albania.

In Czech, the beast of the sea has swam to Paseka, the publisher of authors such as Alice Munro, Douglas Stuart, Vladimir Nabokov, Édouard Louis, and Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Paseka, known for its quality translations and emphasis on the graphic design and typesetting of its titles, has published from Finland before quite a few authors, including Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen – a co-nominee for Finlandia Prize with Iida Turpeinen – and Antti Leikas.

In Lithuania, the country’s biggest publishing house Alma Littera will be taking care of Beasts of the Sea. Their publishing house includes a high number of literary names, including Nobel Prize winners Abdulrazak Gurnah, Peter Handke, and Louise Glück. From Finland, Alma Littera has published, among others, novels by Minna Rytisalo and Tommi Kinnunen.

Albanian Muza is a publishing house founded in 2019, with already an interesting list of both fiction, children’s titles and nonfiction. From Finland, Muza has already published a good number of titles, including Mia Kankimäki.

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 a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. The international publishers at the moment are (with an Arabic offer on the table):

Albania, Muza
Catalan, Cossetània
Czech Republic, Paseka
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
English, MacLehose (UK) and Little, Brown (US) (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
World French, Autrement (auction)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Lithuania, Alma Littera 
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Poland, Poznanskie (pre-empted)
Portuguese (in Portugal), Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska
Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)

In addition to this remarkable success abroad, the novel has already gained three nominations for literary awards, and just a bit over a week ago it took one of them and won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, given to the best debut of the year.

The novel also is a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize, given to the most internationally potential Finnish novel.

The novel is a science-fueled story of extinctions with a huge marine mammal, Steller’s sea cow, as its protagonist. With her short, concise sentence and the skills of a great storyteller, Turpeinen has created a page-turning literary work is that is hugely topical despite the fact that the events of the novel take place in 18th, 19th and 20th century.

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