Author: Anastasia

The most exciting time of the year has arrived: this week, we will find out all the nominees for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize.

First in line is nonfiction category, and we are thrilled to announce that Annika Luther’s book Rye – A Prolific History is competing with 5 other titles for the award!

Rye – A Prolific History takes the reader on a captivating, compelling journey through the millennia as it recounts the story of the grain. Crop failures and famine, the devastation caused by ergot, and innovations such as the heated barn play a role in a rich cultural history sprouting around rye, from the adoption of the “rye flower” as a symbol of conservative politics to an unusual cast of characters, such as Nikolai Vavilov, the botanist who tracked down the plant’s origins. 

The book also addresses rye’s current status a big player in the sourdough starter boom and its future in gene banks and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to preserve diversity in plant life.

Aftonbladet Newspaper stated about the book:

“There are similarities between the new popular science book Rye – A Prolific History, by the Finland Swedish novelist and biologist Annika Luther, and Patrik Svensson’s megasuccess The Book of Eels from 2019. Both authors write about cultural history, focusing on non-human subjects. Both write with curiosity and, at times, a hint of poetry, that leads the reader to unexpected places and insights about ecological relations.”

Annika Luther (b. 1958) is a biologist, award-winning author, and high school teacher. In addition to Rye: A Prolific History (2022), she has published three novels and six books for young adults, of which Letter to the Ends of the Earth (2008) was nominated for the Finlandia Junior Award and won both the Topelius Award and the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Award.

Finlandia Prize is the most prestigious literary award in Finland, given out yearly in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and children’s & YA literature. The award sum is 30,000 euros.

The nominees for the children’s category will be announced tomorrow and the fiction nominees on Thursday – the 9th and 10th of November respectively. The winners will be announced on November 30th.

Congratulations to the author for the nomination!

While publishers around the world keep complaining about the tough times they are experiencing, Ukrainians, as always, just get to the action – and make an offer for two books on HLA’s list!

Astrolabe, a beautiful Ukrainian publishing house, established in Lviv in 2000, has just acquired the rights for Before the Birds, a novel by Merja Mäki, recounting a family’s experiences during the evacuation journey from war-ridden Karelia, and Apogee, a sci-fi thriller by the EU Prize for Literature winner Piia Leino.

Astrolabe publishes literature of various genres, including fiction, poetry, books on philosophy, psychology, history, political science, law, economics, arts etc. The publisher also prides itself in contributing to Ukrainian culture by releasing new translations of medieval and early modern literature, such as The Song of Roland, the Divine Comedy by Dante, the first Ukrainian translations of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and an Old English epic Beowulf, among others. It is also the publisher of Piia Leino’s novel Heaven (2018).

Before the Birds (Gummerus, 2022) was an instant commercial and critical success in Finland, selling over 10,000 copies and becoming a #1 Bestselling Audiobook immediately after the publication. This is the first foreign rights sale for the novel.

In the winter of 1939, much of Finland’s eastern province Karelia was ceded to the Soviet Union, which becomes the setting for the novel. The main protagonist, a young woman called Alli, is suddenly forced to leave her Karelian home behind and embark on an onerous trek across Finland, in order to find a new home.

Not only must she now endure the strenuous evacuation, but also face an unexpected, life-changing responsibility, come to terms with the complicated relationship with her own mother, and somehow, continue to dream. 

“Mäki does such a vivid job leading the reader on the evacuees’ journey that one feels one is there oneself, freezing and feet covered in bloody blisters. […] The novel expands my understanding of what it means – and how it feels – to leave everything behind.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Apogee (S&S, 2021) is set in the year 2045, when the earth’s march toward ecological catastrophe has continued, and the environmental movement is radicalizing.

When the owner of a chain of clothing stores dies in a freak smart-device accident, the police do not initially suspect a crime. However, journalist Aaro Kangas is assigned to look into the potential radicalization of an ecological community at Oak Valley, and unwittingly ends up at the heart of an ambitious plan for annihilation. The investigation quickly turns incredibly personal – and incredibly dangerous. 

Foreign rights of Apogee have also been sold to Bulgaria and Hungary.

“A seamlessly written, fast-paced novel that combines crime mystery with dystopian visions of the near future.”
– Helsingin sanomat newspaper

Congratulations to both authors, and most importantly – SLAVA UKRAINI!

Happy news for one of the highlights on HLA’s list: novel Matara by Matias Riikonen has now been sold to Karl Rauch Verlag in Germany.

Karl Rauch Verlag is a literary house that prouds itself for publishing classics such as Don Quijote and The Little Prince in German, as well as modern fiction of high literary quality.

This is the fourth foreign rights deal for the novel, which has previously been sold France, Hungary and Denmark.

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.

The novel has indeed been on a splendid success journey since its publication in autumn 2021: it was nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize, and won the Torch-Bearer Prize; the novel was also nominated for another prestigious award, the Runeberg Prize.

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

Congratulations to the author for this wonderful deal!

Wonderful news in the nonfiction department: Nostalgia – Theory and Practice by Antto Vihma received the State Award for Public Information, one of the most important accolades for nonfiction in Finland.

The jury stated about the work:

“In his book Nostalgia – Theory and Practice, Antto Vihma introduces to us modern nostalgia in the Western context. All the way through the history of this phenomenon, the author goes on to explore the connection between present day populism and nostalgia using four recent textbook examples: Brexit; the German AfD party; Donald Trump; as well as the Finnish “True Finns” party. (…)

Vihma doesn’t give in to straightforward and simplified solutions and helps the reader realise just how enchanting and appealing nostalgia is, and how it can be used as a fuel for achieving various goals. At the same time, the author, for example, offers an extraordinary explanation to the question that so many have pondered for years: why some of us are susceptible to conspiracy theories than others? (…)

The book encourages thoughts that stay with the reader for a long time after closing the book and become recognisable in different situations, proving that nostalgia is everywhere.”

The State Award for Public Information has been given out yearly since 1968. The number of recipients varies every year and nominations are primarily given to fiction and nonfiction books, radio and TV programmes and newspapers articles that had the most significant contribution to the information publication during the previous year. The amount of each award is 15,000 euros, except for the lifelong award (20,000 euros).

Congratulations to the author!

For many years, France and the French world were considered to be a rather difficult market for translated titles to break in. Well, it is no more: in fact, in the last couple of years the French world has become a leading market for HLA’s books, acquiring the majority of adult titles on our current list, some of them in auction or pre-empt.

One of the biggest deals recently made remains Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional trilogy, that was sold in pre-empt to Robert Laffont last autumn. The French translation of the first book in the trilogy, The Lowest Common Multiple (1998), is expected to be launched next year.

The French are not shying away from more challenging and longer in volume titles either: Marisha Rasi-Koskinen’s Lynchian masterpiece REC was acquired by Payot & Rivages, and Niillas Holmerg‘s novel Halla Helle, focusing on indigenous Sámi people, was acquired by Éditions du Seuil.

Probably the most experimental title on HLA’s list, 101 Ways to Kill Your Husband by the author duo Laura Lindstedt and Sinikka Vuola was also sold to France recently: the publisher will be Gallimard.

Finland also seems to be the country for the “golden middle” of publishing known as upmarket literary fiction: titles that are of high literary value, but also accessible for wide audiences and having the potential of becoming bestsellers.

A great example of such title is Matara, the lauded and awarded new novel by Matias Riikonen, which was acquired in auction by one of the most prestigious literary publishing houses in France, Éditions Bourgois.

Another upmarket literary title, the eclectic and stunning debut full of dark humour To My Brother by author E. L. Karhu, will be soon published in the French language world by the beautiful La Peuplade.

A year ago, Anni Kytömäki’s three novels – Goldheart (2014); The Stone Weaver (2017); and the Finlandia winner Margarita (2020) – also found a beautiful home in France: all three books will be published by Rue de l’échiquier.

The interest in commercial titles from Finland is also growing speedily and once again, the French language market is the proof of that: Ann-Christin Antell, who only at the beginning of the summer joined HLA’s list with her historical romance trilogy Cotton Mill, was immediately noticed by Marabout, the imprint of Hachette, the biggest publisher in France and the third biggest publishing group in the world. The stunning deal for all three books in the trilogy was closed in July.

Finally, children’s titles are travelling a bit slower; in the last couple of years, only Anja Portin’s Finlandia Junior winner Radio Popov found a home in France: the children’s novel was acquired by Éditions Milan. Foreign rights for this title have been sold to 25 territories, so perhaps the children’s publishers in France just don’t like to take any risks?

All these fantastic deals wouldn’t have been possible without amazing partners in crime: Anna Lindblom from the Nordik Agency and all of the wonderful translators, who keep spreading the word about our books. Thank you!

If you are interested in seeing the materials for any of our titles, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Urtė (urte@helsinkiagency.fi).