News

How wonderful to see that some of our older titles never stop conquering the world. It’s a joy to announce that Juhani Karila’s 2019 sensation Fishing for the Little Pike has now been sold to Fazi Editore in Italy! This is the 13th foreign territory for the title.

Fazi Editore is a literary house founded in 1994, that publishes some of the most distinguished literary names from Italy and abroad, including Thomas De Quincey, John Fante, Hillary Mantel, Tove Ditlevsen, among others.

Fishing for the Little Pike has been recently published in French, in translation by Claire Saint-Germain, and was met with raging reviews, comparing the novel to Shakespeare, Arto Paasilinna, Rabelais and Cervantes. The novel was nominated for Prix Micheline, a booksellers’ prize for the best literary debut.

The previous foreign rights deals include:

World Arabic, Al Arabi
World English, Pushkin Press (UK & The Commonwealth) and Restless Books (USA & Canada)
Denmark, Jensen & Dalgaard
Dutch, Koppernik
Estonia, Hea Lugu
World French, La Peuplade
Germany, Homunculus
Hebrew, Locus
Hungary, Metropolis Media
Poland, Marpress
Russia, Livebooks
Turkey, İthaki

Congratulations to the author! Don’t forget to tune in Literature from Finland podcast episode MYTH, where Karila discussed myths from and about Finland.

How incredible it is to see big successes of some of our most beautiful titles!

The philosophical and loving Cat, who is actually a dog, and her adventures don’t cease to interest the foreign publishers: foreign rights of all four books have now been sold to Pandora | Trei Editorial Group in Romania, making it the 9th foreign territory for this beautiful series.

Written by Tomi Kontio and illustrated by Elina Warsta, the books tell a story about an unlikely friendship between lonely individuals. It deals with accepting difference, seeing people without prejudice and the importance of looking beyond the surface. The bittersweet, humorous style shows life in all its guises; even those of us with a rougher lot can experience joy and happiness.

The first book in the series, A Dog Called Cat, was published in 2015, and was shortlisted for a Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize and nominated for the IBBY Honour List for Elina Warsta’s illustrations. A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat followed in 2019 and was nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Junior Prize. The series continued in 2020 with A Dog Called Cat Looking for Home and finished with A Dog Called Cat and the Wonder of Christmas in 2021.

The books have been sold to:
Bulgaria, Raketa; 
Estonia, Päike ja pilv; 
Hungary, Koinonia;
Lithuania, Nieko rimto;
Romania, Pandora | Trei Editorial Group;
Serbia, Pcelica;
Slovakia, Ikar; 
Spain, Lata de Sal;
Sweden, Epix

Congratulations to the authors!

How wonderful to see that our backlist titles travel just as well as the new ones. World English rights of Mannerheim: From Russian Spy to Finnish Statesman, a 2017 title by Henrik Meinander, have now been sold to Hurst.

Henrik Meinander (b. 1960) is a professor of history at the University of Helsinki and the author of many acclaimed books on Finnish and Nordic history. He was formerly curator of the Mannerheim Museum in Helsinki.

Hurst Publishers is a London-based house, established in 1969. The publisher focuses exclusively on nonfiction, and their books range from African Studies, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies to History, War & Conflict, and International Relations.

Congratulations to the author!

One of the biggest literary events in Finland last autumn, Matias Riikonen’s novel Matara continues its journey to foreign territories: recently sold to the French world, the title has now been acquired by Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark.

Jensen & Dalgaard is a beautiful publisher based in Copenhagen, passionate about publishing literature of undying literary quality. Among others, it has previously published Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila; Katie-Kate by Anu Kaaja; REC by Marisha Rasi-Koskinen and Selja Ahava’s novels.

Since its publication, Matara has gained an immense success: it was nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize and as well as the Runeberg Prize, and won the Torch-Bearer Prize.

Don’t forget to check out the short interview with the author!

Congratulations to the author for the success!