News

The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen is nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, awarded yearly to the best debut.

Breaking news from the Helsinki Book Fair: The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen has been nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, a yearly award for the best Finnish debut.

Helsingin Sanomat is the largest national newspaper in Finland, and this literary award dates back to 1995, and the winner will be announced on November 14th. Last year, the award went to Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea.

The Thick of the Forest is set in a near future where nature has started fighting back against humanity, destroying the world as we know it. To escape nature’s vengeance and isolate themselves from it as well as they can, people have fled to small city-states surrounded by walls. One of them is the former city of Turku, where a tightly guarded Nation has been established. Ingrid grew up in this new world, and has lived all her life in the Nation. After her mother’s death, she gets a job with a research group called Wild Rosemary, whose task is to map the conditions outside the walls of the Nation. Although the forest has been pacified, it is still angry and dangerous, and soon there is discord among the researchers as well. 

Mixing elements from Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in the unique setting of a Finnish forest capable of utter destruction, The Thick of the Forest is an entrancing and linguistically captivating first novel about a forest that haunts people and two women, Edla and Ingrid, whose stories intersect. The result is a rich telling of the relationship between mankind and nature, and of how the lines dividing them become increasingly blurry in the depth of the forest. In Finland, the book is published by Gummerus, and has been welcomed with glowing reviews by Finnish critics and media, where some hailed it as the best debut since Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water.

The foreign rights have so far been sold to Croatia, where the book will be published by Hangar 7.

In Finland, The Thick of the Forest is published by Gummerus.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!

The Helsinki Book Fair is in full swing, and domestic authors are getting the spotlight they deserve. Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea has been a literary phenomenon both domestically and internationally, and has been broadcast on the national news for a piece about literary export and international success, drawing comparisons between the Finnish literary scene and the international landscape.

You can tune in and watch the extract about Beasts of the Sea (in Finnish) here.

Last week the Frankfurt Book Fair saw the success of Das Wesen des Lebens, the German edition of Beasts of the Sea by Fischer, and more news and accolades for the foreign editions are flowing in.

Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries. Approaching natural diversity through individual destinies, it’s a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries.

The novel is the winner of The Thank You for the Book Award, Finland’s booksellers’ prize, the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize. Its international breakthrough has been acknowledged for example by the Bookseller and its foreign rights have been sold to 27 territories all over the world.

In Finland, Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S, part of Schildts & Söderströms and it has already sold 50.000 copies in Finland alone.

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potentials of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science. 

Congratulations to the author!

The accolades for Beasts of the Sea keep rolling in as Iida Turpeinen‘s world-class debut conquers the international literary scene: the French edition of Beasts of the Sea has been nominated for the Best Foreign Book of the Year.

The French edition of Beasts of the Sea, translated by Sébastien Cagnoli and published by Flammarion (Autrement) with the title A la recherche du vivant. The French edition has also been welcomed in pocket format, published by J’ai lu. Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries. Approaching natural diversity through individual destinies, it’s a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries.

The novel is the winner of The Thank You for the Book Award, Finland’s booksellers’ prize, the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize. Its international breakthrough has been acknowledged for example by the Bookseller and its foreign rights have been sold to 27 territories all over the world. The German edition, out with Fischer, is a current hit in Germany, and its French edition by Autrement has been welcomed with rave reviews on French media, including on the newspaper Liberation.

In Finland, Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S, part of Schildts & Söderströms and it has already sold 50.000 copies in Finland alone.

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potentials of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science. 

The Irreplaceables by Juha Kauppinen & Janne Toriseva (ill.) has been sold to Hungary, where it will be published by Cerkabella.

The Irreplaceables by Juha Kauppinen & Janne Toriseva (ill.) is travelling to Hungary, where it will be published by Cerkabella. This is the first foreign deal for this title, which introduces readers of all ages to keystone species from all around the world. These organisms are essential to other species and the interconnected web, a fundamental characteristic of nature.

Among them are the Arctic region’s little auk, the green humphead parrotfish of the tropics, lions of the African savanna, the non-biting midges living in every body of water on earth, and the North American white oak.

The Irreplaceables, written in a concise and informative style by Juha Kauppinen and wonderfully illustrated by Janne Toriseva stand out from similar nature books for the fact that it focuses on the interdependence between species in their environment, rather than on the presentation of single species, resulting in a reading experience that is much more enriching and fosters awareness of the importance of biodiversity.

The Irreplaceables gained popularity in Finland, where it also became an exhibition. The Irreplaceables exhibitions has been on tour in Finland, and will continue its journey throughout the country in 2025.

Cerkabella is a Hungarian publishing house specialising in illustrated books and youth literature. Their publications strive for the highest quality, and since 2007 Cerkabella has launched a line of publication dedicated to the Nordics, with the goal of bringing literature from Northern Europe to the Hungarian audience. They are the Hungarian home of, among others, Radio Popov by Anja Portin.

Congratulations to the authors and the publisher!

Hotel Sapiens by Leena Krohn is travelling to Estonia, where it will be published by Loomingu Raamatukogu.

Hotel Sapiens by Leena Krohn is continuing its journey out into the world, and is headed to Estonia, where Loomingu Raamatukogu will publish it.

Leena Krohn has been active since the 1970s, and has since become one of Finland’s most legendary authors, whose writing forms an impressive body of work. Her sly humor and lucid language speak of our existence in very strange realms with courage and intelligence. One of the greatest visionaries in Finnish literature, Krohn’s works have been translated to over 20 languages.

In Hotel Sapiens we follow a group of people who are staying at the hotel, except Hotel Sapiens is also a madhouse, a research station, a training camp and a museum. The guests are kept under observation as carriers of a dire and incurable disease, humanity.

Hotel Sapiens will be published in Estonian as part of Loomingu Raamatukogu, which started its activity in 1957, and publish about 20 paperback books per year. Loomingu Raamatukogu focuses on quality literature from various eras and corners of the world. Their publication is diverse and extensive, and includes novels, collections of short stories and poetry, essays, travelogues, plays and memoirs. 

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!