News

Some amazing news to share just before the end of the year: a living legend and a crucial figure in the canon of feminist literature from Finland, Märta Tikkanen, will now have a new publisher in France, as Cambourakis acquires the rights to republish three classics by the author: Manrape (1975); The Love Story of the Century (1978); and The Great Chaser (1989).

Founded in 2006, Éditions Cambourakis has a small, yet diverse and eclectic list of titles varying from translated literary fiction to graphic novels and children’s books. Tikkanen’s work will be published in Cambourakis’s paperback collection of contemporary classics, alongside with important feminine voices such as Sigrid Undset, Grazia Deledda, Edna Ferber and many more.

Märta Tikkanen (b. 1935) is a Finland-Swedish journalist, writer, and teacher. In her broad output, she has critically dealt with gender roles and the shackles that bind women, as well as women’s liberation and the longing to realize oneself. With Manrape, she became a central figure in the Nordic women’s movement.

Tikkanen’s work has been translated into over 20 languages. In 2020, The Love Story of the Century was published in the English world, by the independent publisher Deep Vellum.

Over her career, Tikkanen has been awarded various prestigious prizes, including the Nordic Women’s Alternative Literature Prize in 1979, the Swedish Academy’s Finland Prize in 2002 and Finland’s State Literary Prize in 2011.

Check out an incredibly rich, astonishing interview with E. L Karhu, the author of To My Brother, one of the most sensational Finnish novels in 2021.

In it, Karhu discusses the themes of the novel, the biggest literary influences on her writing, as well as the importance of intercontextuality of working in two language spheres.

Read the interview here.

As the major award season in Finland is wrapping up, we still keep receiving thrilling news about our titles. We are proud to share that My Dad Is a Hipster, written by Tomi Kontio and illustrated by Elina Warsta, and The Princess Who Did a Runner, written by Saara Kekäläinen and illustrated by Netta Lehtola, are now nominated for the Arvid Lydecken Award.

The Arvid Lydecken Award was established in 1969, by the Finland’s Association of children’s and YA authors, and is given to the best children’s book of the year.

The Princess Who Did a Runner (published by S&S) is a humorous and dynamic picture book about a princess called Leona, who is not having any of the traditional princess life. When her parents announce she is supposed to get married to a prince, Leona does a runner. Jumping from one fairytale to another, not only Leona meets many funny characters, but also questions the roles in traditional fairytales and alters them to be much more to her liking.

The result is a book full of sharp humour that will offer even big children and adults plenty of food for thought. The title was recently sold to Denmark (Straarup & Co).

My Dad Is A Hipster (published by Teos Publishers) is an illustrated novel for first independent readers, but also very suitable to smaller children to read together with their parents. It tells a story about a boy called Nuutti, who lives together with his dad. When Nuutti’s schoolmate Selma one day informs him that his dad is a hipster, Nuutti is dumbfounded and worried: neither of the kids know what “hipster” means, so the truth must be found out as quickly as possible!

Thus follows a fun adventure, in which the Finlandia Junior-awarded Tomi Kontio catches the essence of being a kid. Solving the hipster issue grows into a warm-hearted story of longing, remembering, family and friendship. The beautiful illustrations by Elina Warsta are especially appealing for the young readers.

Congratulations to the authors and fingers crossed!

Author Kari Hotakainen recently has been having it swell: only recently, we announced that his novel Story from 2020, had been sold to Bulgaria. Now, two more titles are travelling to Hungary.

Polar, who has for years now been a dedicated publisher of some of the most literary titles from Finland, acquired the Hungarian rights to Hotakainen’s older novel Lifeline (2015).

In Lifeline, the solitary, unnamed Detective Superintendent sings in a choir to escape the crushing weight of his work. In the choir, however, are also the Verger and the Hairdresser. As they are spilling out their ordinary and extraordinary troubles to the Superintendent, he is unable to avoid becoming involved.

The novel gives a voice and a chance to act to those who usually are deprived of it. It is filled with raw emotions: fury, love and hate. All of it boils down to one question: can there be a return back to normal, if those who have always put others before themselves cross the line?

In turn, the Hungarian rights for Hotakainen’s newest and bestselling work, novel The Disciple (2022), was acquired by Typotex.

The Disciple is a ferocious novel about social exclusion, revenge, and the search for connection. It runs on a thriller’s revs, the pulse of the main protagonist Maria’s heart. Over the course of the three days, Maria settles accounts in a way that forces the reader to think about the meaning of life, the problems inherent in a middle-class lifestyle, and the part we play as individuals on the final precipice of an era.

The book made it to #2 on the bestseller list in just one week after publication, and has gathered raving reviews.

“The rhetorical blades of Disciple strike with precision, and a dark, laconic humor sustains the work.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Even though the decision to sell two titles of the same author to different publishers in the same country might seem strange to some, both publishers agreed that, due to their different profiles, each will be able to provide the best home for the exact title of Hotakainen that each has chosen.

We are always happy to see that some of our backlist titles continue to receive interest from the foreign publishers!

In November, two older titles were sold to ICU in Bulgaria: Juhani Karila’s sensational Fishing For the Little Pike (for which we now have a FULL English translation); and Kari Hotakainen’s novel Story.

Both novels were bestsellers in Finland, and have been sold to several foreign territories: for Karila’s book, this is the 14th foreign rights deal, and the 5th for Hotakainen’s Story.

ICU is a lovely independent publishing house, focusing on quality, not quantity. The house was founded in 2012 and usually aims to publish around 10 titles a year. It is a home for an impressive list of contemporary authors whose books have been translated into a dozen languages, including Olga Tokarczuk, Janine Cummins, Chris Cleave, Marijke Lukas Reinefeld and others.

Fishing for the Little Pike has been described as an utterly original, genre-defying debut, in which a young woman’s annual pilgrimage to her home in Lapland to catch an elusive pike in three days is complicated by a host of mythical creatures, a murder detective hot on her trail, and a deadly curse hanging over her head.

The novel has been awarded the Kalevi Jäntti  Award, Tähtifantasia (’Star Fantasy’) Prize and Jarkko Laine Award and nominated for the Kuvastaja Award, given out  by  the Finnish Tolkien Society. 

The novel is due to be published in the English world the upcoming spring.

Hotakainen’s Story was a #1 bestseller after its publication in 2020, and has sold well over 30,000 copies in Finland. It has been described as slyly moving and wildly funny; in the novel, the countryside has been turned into a Recreation Area, and everyone has been made to live in the City. As there is not enough housing for everyone, a brutal playoff begins. Who can tell the most attractive story and make their lives seem interesting and get an apartment?

Kari Hotakainen has been awarded for his previous works with the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, Finland’s biggest literary award the Finlandia Prize, the Prix du Courrier International and the Prix Coup du Coeur, amongst others. His first nonfiction book, The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) is the best-selling Finnish nonfiction work of all times with over 200,000 sold copies in Finland and over 100,000 abroad.