“The whole of the city is alive with the bustle of building work, and there’s no let-up at night either: when I finally fall asleep, I soon hear hammering and shouting. And I don’t know which shout emanates from a dream and which from the real world. Neither do I know which city is completed first and which is more beautiful, better to inhabit.” (Translation: Fleur Jeremiah)
Gallimard has acquired the World French rights of Jukka Viikilä’s Finlandia Prize winning novel Watercolours from a Seaside City.
Gallimard, founded in 1911, is the largest independent publishing house in France. Throughout the 20th century, Gallimard has published such authors as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Marcel Proust, and is also the home of 2008 Nobeal laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
Watercolours from a Seaside City (2016) is a fictive diary of a German architect, Carl Ludwig Engel, who was commissioned by the Russian emperor to build the capital of Finland in the beginning of the 19th century. The novel has been praised of its lyrical touch and aphoristical observations of life. The novel has so far sold over 43,000 copies in Finland.
Jukka Viikilä (b. 1973) is a poet, writer, and dramaturge.
Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s Finlandia Prize winning novel Ice has been sold to Croatian publisher Hena com.
Hena com is a prominent publishing house with a list of strong literary authors, such as Don DeLillo, Amos Oz and Umberto Eco.
Ice (2012) is one of the most successful Finlandia Prize winning novels. It has sold in Finland over 100,000 copies, and its rights have been sold so far to nine countries.
Karin Erlandsson’s adventurous children’s novel The Pearl Fisherhas been sold to Sinisukk in Estonia.
Sinisukk is one of the biggest publishers of children’s literature in Estonia, with authors such as Astrid Lindgren, P. L. Travers and Rachel Renée Russell on their list.
Pearl Fisher is the first book of four part series Song for the Eye Gemstone. It won the publisher’s children’s novel competition, was nominated for Arvid Lydecken Prize and won the prestigeous Runeberg Junior Prize in February 2018. At the moment is nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in two categories (Finland and Åland).
Karin Erlandsson (b. 1978) works as a journalist in Åland. She has written before three novels for adult readers, The Mink Farm (2014) shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, and a cook book. The Pearl Fisher (2017) is her first children’s novel.
Danish publishing house Jensen & Dalgaard has acquired Selja Ahava’s new novel Before My Husband Disappears – a story about a woman who’s life is changed by a single sentence. Published in Finnish in autumn 2017, the novel has gotten an enormous amount of attention in Finland.
Jensen & Dalgaard have just published Ahava’s previous novel Things that Fall from the Skythat was awarded with European Union Prize for Literature in 2016 and nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Torch-bearer Prize. The novel has been sold so far to 16 countries.
Selja Ahava (b. 1974) is a dramaturge and a scriptwriter. Before My Husband Disappears is her third novel.
The Bologna fair just over and the London fair right around the corner, we are happy to share some highlights of our spring catalogues (you can check them as a whole here)!
LITERARY FICTION list is pouring with both awarded authors as new voices.
Headland (2017)
HEADLAND Finlandia Prize 2017
Juha Hurme’s HEADLAND, latest Finlandia Prize winner with the printrun of the amazing 100,000 copies is a cultural history of the peninsula that later became known as Finland – from the Big Bang till year 1809, told in the breakneck style of Juha Hurme.
The Mother of All Losses (2017)
MOTHER OF ALL LOSSES
Runeberg Prize 2016
Marjo Niemi’s MOTHER OF ALL LOSSES, latest Runeberg Prize winner is a frantic monologue from a daughter to a mother that carries the reader with its unique rythm to the feelings of shame and guilt – a book infuriatingly funny and deeply touching at the same time.
Before My Husband Disappears (2017)
BEFORE MY HUSBAND DISAPPEARS from the winner of European Union Prize for Literature
Selja Ahava’s BEFORE MY HUSBAND DISAPPEARS is the new novel of the author of European Union Prize of Literature winning Things that Fall from the Sky that has been sold to 16 countries so far. With her unique voice Ahava tells a story of a lives that start to change from one sentence.
COMMERCIAL FICTION list is growing both on the crime and the cozy side! These two are on the not too cozy side, though…
Vantaa – Large Blue (2018)
VANTAA – LARGE BLUE
Hardboiled crime from Finland’s New Jersey
J.P. Pulkkinen’s LARGE BLUE is a hard boiled crime novel located in Vantaa – the rough-edged boomtown just a bit north of Helsinki where the crimes seem to have roots that go deep in the city’s past. With crystal clear language, well-build characters and a plot that pulls you in like quicksand Pulkkinen, established as a novelist, makes his entrance to the scene of crime fiction – and straight to the top.
Endgame (2017)
BORDERTOWN – ENDGAME
J.M. Ilves’ ENDGAME is the second book of BORDERTOWN crime series set at the border between Finland and Russia. Story: A dead man on a boat. The detective’s daughter covered with blood. A cat and mouse play with the serial killer about to begin…
Broadcasted by Netflix in several areas, the television series has been sold to over 40 countries and is boosted by the new season coming out first in Finland already in the autumn.
NONFICTION highlights are a show of real Finnish lifestyle, obviusly resulting into Finland being the happiest country in the world!
Pantsdrunk – Kalsarikänni (2018)
KALSARIKÄNNI – PANTSDRUNK Finnish path to relaxation, sold to 11 countries so far!
Miska Rantanen’s PANTSDRUNK, KALSARIKÄNNI – The Finnish Path to Relaxation has been sold to 11 countries. The book came out in Finnish in February, and the English translation is soon to be in the USA, published by HarperCollins.
The story in short: where the Danes have hygge and the Swedes have lagom, the Finns have kalsarikanni – pantsdrunk: drinking home alone in your underwear.
Sauna People (2019) / Photo: Heli Blåfield
SAUNA PEOPLE Why the Finns are Always in Sauna?
Heli and Ville Blåfield make a different kind of a venture into the Finnish well-being with SAUNA PEOPLE, a book that tells why the Finns are always in the sauna.
Why is going to sauna so essential in Finland, and how come this introverted people suddenly change when they get naked?
CHILDREN’S FICTION list is out too – the first one in HLA history!
Nyckelknipan | Avain hukassa (2017)
THE LOST KEY
Finlandia Junior Prize 2018
Sanna Mander’s THE LOST KEY, the latest Finlandia Junior Prize winner, is a charming, rhyming picture book about different people all living in an apartment building.
With colours and smart illustrations Mander shows that actually all of us are different in one way or another.
The Pearl Fisher (2017)
THE PEARL FISHER
Runeberg Junior Prize 2018
Nominee for Nordic Council’s Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize 2018
Karin Erlandsson’s THE PEARL FISHER, the latest Runeberg Junior Prize winner and a nominee for the Nordic Council Children’s Book Prize is set in the kingdom of stories, where the most powerful and most dangerous legend is the story of the Eye Gemstone…
An adventure without comparison, the book grows to a grand tale of friendship, longing and what truly matters in life.
