News

Fantastic news keep pouring in: the autofictional trilogy – The Lowest Common Multiple (1998); The Backlight (2000) and The Red Book of Farewells (2003) – by the Finnish cultural icon Pirkko Saisio has now been sold in a pre-empt deal to the Dutch publisher De Geus.

De Geus has an international reputation as a publisher of different and distinctive voices from all over the world – authors with an exceptional literary quality and unique view on life and society. They have previously published authors such as Tove Jansson, Deborah Levy, Sami Said, Pajtim Statovci, Olga Tokarczuk, Herta Müller, Bernardine Evaristo, Karl Ove Knausgård, Majgull Axelsson, Maya Angelou and Frida Isberg, to name but a few. 

Acquiring editor Jacoba Casier has stated:

“We can’t wait to introduce Pirkko Saisio to the Dutch readership. Her style and composition are so personal and original. The subjects she touches: feminism, class, gender, sexuality, and the way she treats them is of an overwhelming sharpness and relevance in our current times. We can only admire her talent, her courage, her intelligence and her literary value. It is an author who urgently deserves to be published and read by as many readers as possible.”

Earlier this year, the third part of the trilogy, THE RED BOOK OF FAREWELLS, was sold to North America (Two Lines Press). Active buzz in France and Germany shows us more deals are to expect soon.

Saisio’s new novel, Passion, was published just a couple of weeks ago, and is already among the biggest literary events of the year: a color-saturated, Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe, centered on life’s purpose and the search for meaning, is already running its second print in Finland.

Congratulations to the author on the well-deserved successes!

Nominees for one of the most important literary awards of the year, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for the best debut of the year, have been announced: we are thrilled to see one of our season’s highlights, novel To My Brother by E. L. Karhu, on the list.

To My Brother is a story about a greedy, lonely girl and her beautiful, popular brother. If someone were to look at the girl, they might see a loser who binges on sweets, devours soap operas, and trails her brother like a shadow but whose manic narration forces one to stare, to look more closely.

To My Brother doesn’t ask any direct questions. Even so, listening to its anti-hero prompts thoughts about sibling relationships, caretaking, lust, and social and sexual hierarchies. It’s an absurd bildungsroman germinating from internalized self-hatred, one that takes place at the fringes if the center is a multi-part mirror. A silver scooter racing at maximum speed. An eccentric is attached to its rotating axel, transforming forward momentum into back-and forth motion.

E. L. Karhu (b. 1982) is a playwright and dramaturg. Karhu’s rewritings of classic plays and explorations of new dramatic forms, such as Princess Hamlet (2017) and Eriopis (2020), have received acclaim in Finland and Germany. A play To My Brother will be premiered in Schauspiel Leipzig in Germany in April 2021. It is translated to German by Stefan Moster, who has worked with the the author with her previous plays as well.

Congratulations to the author for the nomination, and fingers crossed!

Busy, busy, busy: that’s all anyone from the publishing industry can say about the crazy month of October. But, for us at HLA, this always means more Finnish literature abroad. Here are the children’s books deals from the month of Frankfurt.

Eva Frantz’s newest children’s novel, The Mystery of the Helmersbruk Manor, illustrated by Elin Sandström, was immediately picked up by Danish publisher Straarup & Co., who has previously acquired The Night Express by Karin Erlandsson and Peter Bergting. The new novel continues in the genre of the spine-tingling ghost stories that Frantz is known for, gripping, heartfelt, and full of adventures. The story is divided in 24 chapters, making it a perfect read in a run-up to Christmas.

Additionally, World Spanish rights for Frantz’s debut in the genre, the Runeberg Junior Prize winner Raspberry Hill (2018), have been sold to Fondo de Cultura. This is the 4th foreign rights sale for the book, which has previously been acquired in the English world, Bulgaria and Russia.

It was recently announced that Frantz’s books are in the Top 10 of the most borrowed books written in Swedish in Finland’s libraries. Raspberry Hill is #7 on the list, and her crime novels for adults Out of the Game (2020) and The Eighth Maiden (2019) are #1 and #10 respectively.

Two other lovely children’s books from HLA’s list will now be travelling to Romania: picture book Secret Gardeners (2021) by Maija Hurme & Lina Laurent, previously sold to 3 foreign territories, was acquired by Didactica, plus there is an offer now on the table for the Romanian rights of the Finlandia Prize winner Radio Popov by Anja Portin, already sold to 20 territories.

We are so happy to see so many beautiful titles from Finland travelling around the world and winning the hearts of publishers and readers alike! Congratulations to the authors!

One of the biggest highlights on HLA’s catalogue this season, novel Matara by the young rising star Matias Riikonen, has been nominated for the prestigious Torch-Bearer Prize.

The Torch-Bearer Prize is given yearly to a title considered to have the most potential to succeed outside Finland. And indeed, Riikonen’s novel has been among the most requested during the Frankfurt days.

Matara is a story about boys’ games gone an inch too seriously. In the novel, boys of a summer camp spend their days in the realm they have built: the Republic of Matara. It has a law, a societal structure, plotting for power and bonds between citizens, as any real state. 

Under the guidance of his older brother, a young boy trains to be a scout. While spying, the pair come upon an enemy camp: war is at hand.

“Matias Riikonen writes about the boys’ wargames as if they were the most important thing in the world. The result is a magnificent work, among the best contemporary Finnish prose.”
– Suomen Kuvalehti magazine

5 authors altogether are nominated for the Torch-Bearer Prize, and the winner will be announced on the 4th of December.

HLA’s authors have been awarded the prize for the two previous years in a row: Minna Rytisalo received it for her novel Mrs C. in 2019, and last year, the winner was Marisha Rasi-Koskinen’s Lynchian masterpiece REC. In 2015, the prize was given to another HLA author, Finlandia Prize winner Anni Kytömäki for her debut novel Goldheart.

Congratulations to all the nominees and fingers crossed for Riikonen’s success!

Some exciting news to announce in the midst of the hectic Frankfurt days: Halla Helle, a striking debut from the indigenous voice Niillas Holmberg, has been sold to Éditions du Seuil in France!

Le Seuil, as it is often simply called, is a well established publishing house, with a publishing history dating back to 1935. Nowadays, it is dedicated to represent as diverse literature as possible: French and translated fiction and nonfiction, thrillers, books on human sciences and philosophy, children’s and YA literature…

The acquiring editor Bénédicte Lombardo was convinced that “Holmberg’s strong, very literary voice” will be a perfect fit to her list.

Halla Helle is a story about a young man Samu, who leaves Southern Finland behind and moves to Sápmi. Something strange and powerful is taking him to Utsjoki: Elle Hallala, the best-known Sámi person in Finland, known by her artist alias Halla Helle. She, however, abandons her art, withdraws from the world and moves on an arctic mountain to live her life according to her ancestors. Can Samu, a child of mainstream culture, understand the Sámi symbols and eventually, help the artist heal?

Niillas Holmberg’s poetry collections have been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize twice. Halla Helle is the first novel published in decades that is written by a Sámi author dealing with Sámi identity and culture.

Don’t forget about the Literature from Finland podcast episode INDIGENOUS, where Niillas discussed his childhood in the Sámi community, his activism and creative work.