Exciting news for the Finnish adult fiction: Dutch publisher Meulenhoff has just acquired the rights to Ann-Christin Antell‘s well-loved Cotton Mill Trilogy.
The Shadow of the Cotton Mill (2021)
Meulenhoff is a leading international Dutch publisher of modern Dutch and translated novels, literary non-fiction, books on art and science, autobiographies, philosophy, journalism and poetry., with a long tradition of bringing high-quality and inspiring books to the Dutch-speaking audience.
The Cotton Mill Trilogy, a historical romance series about three generations of strong women and the family business of the cotton mill, takes readers on a journey through time, starting in the late 19th century and landing in the Roaring 20s.
The trilogy has already sold over 114,000 copies and its third instalment, published in February 2023, rose to the top ten bestseller list in just 5 days.
Fantastic news for the Finnish adult fiction: Czech publisher Bourdon has just acquire the rights to Anni Kytömäki’s masterpiece Goldheart.
Bourdon is a young, energetic publishing house that publishes original and translated literature in the fields of contemporary fiction, popular science, and others.
Goldheart (2014)
Goldheart, Kytömäki’s outstanding debut novel, is set in 1917, the year of great political turmoil in Finland. It’s a story about people with different, yet intertwining destinies: a man who lies down on a rock, intending to freeze to death; a woman who writes to change the world; a girl who grows up with more courage than her father; and a boy who conquers his own fear and meets the wild, free heart of the forest.
Awarded with the Torch-bearer Prize, Blogistania Finlandia Prize and the Kaarle Prize, Goldheart has received splendid reviews. It was nominated for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, and the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debuts. The novel has sold ca. 25 000 copies in Finland.
KSI focuses on publishing children’s picture books that promote self-searching, independence, family love, environment, and diversity, among other themes. The publisher has recently acquired another title from HLA’s list, Skeleton, a picture book written by Malin Klingenberg and illustrated by Maria Sann.
This is the 8th foreign rights sale for the Erlandsson’s title, which was awarded the Runeberg Junior Prize 2021 and nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2021.
In this Christmas-spirited story, beautifully illustrated by the renowned Peter Bergting, a little girl called Dania suddenly notices that her beloved Granny has become older and more forgetful during the past years, and sometimes speaks nonsense. When Granny mysteriously disappears, Dania embarks on a magical night train, thus beginning an unforgettable adventure, with an aim to find someone she have loved but lost.
An enchanting and wildly riveting story brimming with the magic of Christmas has 24 chapters and is also splendid for reading out loud.
Towards the summer, some lovely children’s books deals! Two new deals are now confirmed for Malin Klingenberg’s most recent picture book, Skeleton (2023), illustrated by Maria Sann: De Vier Windstreken acquired world Dutch rights, while Korean Studies Information (KSI) will be publishing it in South Korea.
De Vier Windstreken is a beautiful children’s literature publisher based in The Netherlands. Their main focus is on picture books for various age groups.
Skeleton (Schildts & Söderstörms, 2023)
KSI, on its part, focuses on publishing children’s picture books that promote self-searching, independence, family love, environment, and diversity, among other themes.
Skeleton is a tenderly told story about a child overcoming his fears while learning what each of us is made of. When little Teo, who is afraid to death of skeletons, learns he has one inside of him too, he gets worried: Is there a skeleton inside everyone? Sometimes parts of us break and need to be fixed with a cast.
“An expert at telling humorous stories, Klingenberg has toned done the funny business and written a book that is inventive, multilayered, and in complete solidarity with its child protagonist. […] Klingenberg has partnered here with one of Finland’s sharpest illustrators, Maria Sann. If this were a ballroom dance competition, they’d be standing on the podium’s top spot. Sann succeeds in enriching the text with unexpected illustrative strategies and angles that reveal a child’s perspective. […] Read Skeleton, and you’ll see how Klingenberg and Sann’s polished pearl of a picture book grows with every read into a brilliant bullseye that literally and figuratively gets under the skin of the protagonist and reader alike.” – Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper
A fantastic week for our modern classic, the Helsinki Trilogy, and its legendary author Pirkko Saisio: Romanian publisher Pandora M, an imprint of Editura Trei, becomes the 7th publisher to acquire the rights for the trilogy.
Established in 1995, Pandora M publishes classic and contemporary literature as well as literary essay in three collections: Anansi World Fiction; Literati; and PanDa. Saisio will be published along such world-renowned literary names as Annie Ernaux, Olga Ravn, Georghi Gospodinov, Manuel Vilas, Maggie O’Farrell and many others.
Saisio is, without a doubt, quickly becoming an international phenomenon, no lesser than the Danish Tove Ditlevsen a few years ago. The American publisher Two Lines Press has just launched the third part of the Helsinki trilogy, The Red Book of Farewells (2003), translated by Mia Spangenberg, and will later continue with the two remaining titles: The Lowest Common Multiple (1988) and The Backlight (2000).
The American edition by Two Lines Press, translated by Mia Spangenberg
The German publisher Klett-Cotta, who pre-empted the entire trilogy in the autumn 2021, will also be starting with the third book, which will be published this upcoming autumn as their lead title. On this occasion, a group of prominent journalists from various German publications and media channels such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Tagesspiegel, Welt and others are visiting Helsinki this week to meet Saisio and tour the important places of her childhood and youth.
In the Netherlands, where the trilogy was pre-empted by De Geus, the first part will also be released as the publisher’s lead title, this June. InFrance, the trilogy was pre-empted by Robert Laffont and the publication is planned for 2024. In Hungary, the trilogy is published by Polar.
Cover for the new Finnish edition
In Finland, Siltala will be publishing a new edition of the trilogy this autumn, with entirely new covers.
Saisio’s Autofictional trilogy is one of the masterpieces of 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 for her bestselling novel Passion– a color-saturated, Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe. Passion was recently sold to the Czech publisher Host, who also acquired the entire Helsinki trilogy.
