News

Wonderful news for our books for young readers continue! YA novel We’ll Just Ride Past, by the awarded Ellen Strömberg, has been sold to Bluemoose Books in Korea!

Bluemoose Books is a children’s publisher for all age groups, with a list of children’s and YA novels, as well as picture books. We thank Amo Agency for the Korean deal.

This is second foreign rights sale for Strömberg’s book, as Italian rights were acquired by Terre di Mezzo just before the end of last year.

Published jointly by Schildts & Söderströms in Finland and Rabén & Sjögren in Sweden, We’ll Just Ride Past has been both readers’ and critics’ favourite since day one: in November, it was awarded the most prestigious literary award in Sweden, Augustpriset (August Prize), and it was also a nominee for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Junior Prize.

Don’t forget to check out our Literature from Finland podcast episode YOUTH, where Strömberg discusses writing for young adults. A short interview with the author will give you a better picture of her previous work.

Congratulations to the author!

Exciting news in the department children’s literature: two more titles by the author of spooky novels for the middle grade readers, Eva Frantz, are travelling abroad!

Frantz will now have a publisher in France, as her Christmas-themed spooky children’s novel The Mystery of Helmersbruk Manor (illustrated by Elin Sandström) has been acquired by Rageot. Rageot is one of the best-established children’s publishers in France, with the list of more than 400 titles, including the books for all age groups.

This is the 5th foreign rights deal for the title.

Meanwhile, in Denmark, ABC forlag acquired Frantz’s debut children’s novel, The Mystery of Raspberry Hill (2018), awarded the prestigious Runberg Junior Prize. The Danish house has previously published The Queen of the Night (2020), by the same author.

This is the 6th foreign rights deal for this title.

Eva Frantz rose to prominence with her adult crime series about detective Anna Glad. The books have sold over 55,000 copies in Finland altogether, and foreign rights have been sold to 5 territories. The second book in the series, The Eighth Maiden (2018), was awarded The Crime Novel of the Year in 2019, and nominated for the Glass Key Award, along with authors such as Jo Nesbø.

Frantz published her first book for children in 2018, to great success. Check out our Literature from Finland podcast episode ATMOSPHERES, where Frantz discussed writing for both adults and children.

In Finland, Frantz is published by Schildts & Söderströms.

Congratulations to the author for the deals!

Great news for the beginning of the year: Karin Erlandsson’s wonderful narrative nonfiction, The Blue Yarn – What I Know About Knitting, has been sold to Denmark and Great Britain (World English)! Erlandsson’s publisher in Finland is Schildts & Söderströms.

The Danish publisher will be Straarup & Co., a lovely house that, from HLA’s list, has previously published Karin Erlandsson’s novel for children, The Night Express, as well as the Christmas-themed mystery novel for children, The Mystery of Helmersbruk Manor, written by Eva Frantz and illustrated by Elin Sandström.

The Blue Yarn will be published in the English world will be Dedalus, who is also the publisher of Erlandsson’s The Song of the Eye Gemstone series.

The Blue Yarn: What I Know About Knitting, by award-winning novelist Karin Erlandsson, is an inspiring book seasoned with knitting humour about the history of knitting, women who knit, and its enduring appeal. Erlandsson weaves together a nonfiction book, in which personal memories expand into sharp observations about the effects of knitting on the knitter, those close to them, and society at large.

In it, knitting is presented not only in terms of clothing and preserving tradition, but also as a means of creating and conveying something new. As the world around us burns, it can be a way to survive – or to break the ranks. For those who are busy and stressed, it can be a means of recovering and finding balance. 

These are the first foreign rights deals for the book.

Congratulations to the author!

More fantastic end-of-the-year news for our backlist titles: Minna Rytisalo’s phenomenal bestseller from 2016, Lempi (published in Finland by Gummerus), has now been sold to Bakhåll in Sweden, making it the 6th foreign rights deal for the title.

Bakhåll is an independent publisher focusing primarily on literary fiction, as well as avantgarde and modern classic titles. It is the Swedish home of Frantz Kafka, Anita Desai, Ernest Hemingway, Philip K. Dick, Willy Vlautin and many others. From HLA’s list, Bakhåll has previously published one of the most internationally successful titles from Finland and the EU Prize for Literature winner in 2015, Things that Fall From the Sky, by Selja Ahava (also published by Gummerus in Finland).

A debut novel, Lempi became widely successful immediately after its publication in 2016; the novel sold ca. 30,000 copies in Finland, and just as many copies in Germany, where it was published by Hanser in 2018.

Lempi  is a novel with a singular voice about love, the thirst for life, happenstance, and fate. A story of a woman starts as a fairytale-happiness, but soon evolves into a tragedy that becomes the turning point in the lives of three people. With her timeless but completely fresh and controlled language Rytisalo shows how the main characters of their own lives are just supporting characters in the lives of other.

“Rytisalo has created a precious tapestry where the feelings of the protagonists are timeless, dependless of place and totally fresh, as always in the best of fiction. The novel as a whole is excellently drafted and the language is amazingly balanced at all times.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

“Lempi is one of the books that seem to have been created easily, as if the perfect text would just have flown from the author’s fingertips to the paper and set itself in a ready form. The novel is effortlessly stylish, a complete whole.”
– Aamulehti newspaper

The novel was shortlisted as the favourite book by German-speaking booksellers in Switzerland, also the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, the prestigious Runeberg Prize and the Lapland Literature Prize.