News

Piia Leino’s European Union Prize for Literature winning Heaven has been sold to 12 languages so far, latest to German, Czech and Lithuanian.

In our dystopian times, dystopias seem to work: we are happy to announce the 10th, 11th and 12th deal of Piia Leino’s Heaven. German Schenk Verlag, Czech Větrné mlýny and Lithuanian Aukso žuvys have acquired the rights of the novel.

Before, the novel has been sold to Bulgaria (Perseus), Croatia (Vuković & Runjić), Hungary (Scolar), Lithuania (Aukso žuvys), North Macedonia (Artkonekt), Poland (Widnokrąg), Serbia (Kontrast), Slovenia (Pivec), Turkey (A7) and Ukraine (Astrolabe).

Heaven takes place in Helsinki of 2058. The country has been divides in a civil war. The borders of the southern area are closed and the people are living under the strict rule of Light, an authoritarian movement which has one tool above other to keep the people under control: a virtual reality called Heaven.

What’s more, the people seem to have fallen into total apathy. They live isolated from each other, not wanting to connect nor interact – not wanting anything, with no desires and hopes.

But when a university researcher Akseli meets Iina in Heaven, things start to change.

Heaven has been awarded with the European Union Prize for Literature and the Helmet Literature Prize, and it was the winner of publishing house S&S’s novel competition in 2016.

Poet Niillas Holmberg has received Kirsi Kunnas poetry award, given out every second year to the authors of bold, vivid and influencal modern poetry.

The jury described Holmberg, a prominent figure in the Sami culture, and his poetry as intermediaries between two worlds:

“Niillas Holmberg (b. 1990) is a poet, musician, actor and activist from [the northern Finnish area of] Utsjoki, well-known in all the Sami area. Holmberg is also known as an interpreter from the Sami culture into the modern western world and back. […] Holmberg’s poetry is diffuse and it crosses language boundaries. In it, the concepts of locality and tradition are intertwined with universal themes. Holmberg tries to remember things that have been forced to be forgotten but are still trying to surface. Identity and the recognition of the relationship between men and the nature are the central themes in his works.”

Niillas Holmberg’s sixth collection Underfoot was published last year to a wide critical acclaim. The jury stated:

“The poetry of Holmberg’s latest collection Underfoot (2019) is political and combatant. With smooth strokes, it succeeds in diagnosing the oblivion and the wrongfulness of the modern world and in giving hope of a better future.”

Click the links to read more about the Underfoot and the author.

The best Finnish crime novel of 2019, Eighth Maiden by Eva Frantz, is a nominee for the best Nordic crime novel.

The five novels competing for the best Scandinavian crime novel prize Glass Key Award are Eva Frantz with The Eighth Maiden (Finland), Camilla Grebe with Skuggjägaren (Sweden), Gretellise Holm with Dødfunden (Denmark), Jo Nesbø with Kniv (Norway) and Lilja Sigurðardóttir with Svik (Iceland).

The Eight Maiden was awarded with the best crime novel of the year prize in Finland, and it was a nominee for the Torch-bearer Prize too. (Read the news here and here.) Second novel starred by police officer Anna Glad, The Eight Maiden shows Eva Frantz as the top of her craft. The multi-layered, chilling novel about the past evils working their way to the present has been both the critics’ and the audience’s favourite.

Just out with a new Anna Glad novel, Out of the Game, Eva Frantz has established herself as one of the top crime authors in Finland. In addition to four crime novels, she has written a middle-grade horror novel Raspberry Hill, awarded with the Runeberg Junior Prize (read the news here).

Read more about Eva Frantz from her author presentation and interview.

Novels by Eva Frantz:

Summer Isle (2016)
The Blue Villa (2017, Anna Glad #1)
The Eighth Maiden (2018, Anna Glad #2)
Out of the Game (2020, Anna Glad #3)
Raspberry Hill (children’s novel, 2018)