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In Hurskainen’s third novel, a man of faith does an act of mercy and faces the consequences.

One of the six nominees for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, is Antti Hurskainen’s novel A Wooden Prayer. The novel tells about a verger, a man of faith, and a single father to a five-year-old girl. Unique in its profound and powerful ethos, the novel has been received in Finland with praising reviews.

Finlandia Prize jury stated :
“Faith, hope and love are elemental in Christian doctrine but seldom examined in contemporary literature. This novel is brave enough to not shy away from them and to question the workaday Lutheran attitude to faith. The novel is an exceptionally passionate story about the steadfast faith of a person that radiates into their everyday actions. Hurskainen’s language is as sharp as the main character’s thinking.”

Other reviews of the novel include, among others, the following characterizations:

“Intellectually stimulating novel glows with negativity. […] A Wooden Prayer is a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

“Hurskainen has written a catechism for our time. […] Faith, hope, love, suffering and forgiveness are not just biblical concepts. They are themes that share a link with all human life, and the Bible might work as a useful tool in approaching them. If you can’t be bothered to crack open the Bible, you can at least read A Wooden Prayer.”
– Kulttuuritoimitus.fi literature magazine

We are most happy to welcome Antti Hurskainen to the Helsinki Literary Agency, with huge congratulations of the nomination!

Antti Hurskainen (b. 1986) has written four critically acclaimed collections of essays and three novels: 22—A Story About Eating (2019), Withering (2021), and A Wooden Prayer (2023). A Wooden Prayer, lauded by critics, has been nominated for the Torch-bearer Prize as well as Finlandia, the largest literature prize in Finland. His work often deals with literature, popular culture and religion.

Finlandia Prize is Finland’s biggest literary award, given out in three categories: fiction, children’s and young adult literature, and nonfiction. Each award is worth 30,000 euros. The winners will be announced on 30th November.

Iida Turpeinen and Antti Hurskainen are among the nominees for the title most likely to succeed outside Finland.

Iida Turpeinen‘s exceptional debut Beasts of the Sea has been nominated for the Torch-bearer prize.

The prize jury said about the book:
The history of an animal species that became mythical shortly after its discovery is told through extraordinary human destinies, and the melville-esque sea adventure is combined with a cautionary ecological tale and women’s academic history. Castaways and social circles are as fascinating oddities at the edge of the world as the animals they are looking for. The cosmopolitan protagonists of the debut novel, unique in its content, speak across boundaries of species and language.

Antti Hurskainen‘s stunning novel about faith, guilt and mercy, A Wooden Prayer is one of the six nominees of this prestigious prize.

The jury stated:
Hurskainen’s darkly beautiful book makes one wonder if anyone has the right or the ability to judge one another. The reader ends up examining their own values ​​and choices through embarrassing moral considerations. The book raises questions about the justification of human action, the essence of grace and the order of importance of things. Contemplation of the fundamental quality of humanity and the necessity of reflection are universal.

The Torch-bearer Prize is a literature award given yearly for a title with most potential to succeed internationally. The winner will be announced on December 2^nd at the Tampere Book Festival. Earlier winners on HLA’s list are Merja Mäki, Matias Riikonen, Marisha Rasi-Koskinen , Minna Rytisalo and Anni Kytömäki.

Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea starred by the extinct, strange sea mammal, Steller’s sea cow, continues it journey to new areas.

Beasts of the Sea has written Finnish literary history on the international arena, as its rights were quickly sold to a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. With its success, the novel is the internationally most widely sold Finnish language debut ever.

The latest foreign rights sales are to Slovenia, where the country’s biggest publishing house Mladinska acquired the rights. In Portugal, the rights were sold to Porto Editora, the publisher of authors such as José Saramago and Annie Ernaux and in Greece, to Ikaros, which publishes Odysseus Elytis, George Saunders and Marieke Lucas Rijneveld among others.

Currently, the rights have been sold to 14 areas, with offers on the table for two more (Catalan and Czech). The international publishers are:

World English, MacLehose and Little, Brown (pre-empted)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
World French, Autrement (auction)
World Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Portugal, Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska.

More amazing news for our children’s list: The Princess Who Did a Runner by Saara Kekäläinen and illustrated by Netta Lehtola, is travelling to Latvia, where it will be published by Latvijas Mediji. This marks the 5th deal for this witty, adorable title.

The book follows Leona, a young princess who does a runner when she learns of the fate that awaits her: she must marry a prince in order to save her kingdom. 

Leona jumps from one princess fairytale to the next in order to save herself from the age-old burdens of princesses that lurk around every corner – marriage and household chores. Along the way she meets many characters including a melancholic mirror, the species-changing Swanhilda, and princes with a penchant for glass shoes, menacing pouts, and rescue mission obsessions – not to mention seven adult men who are short of stature and don’t want to learn to clean and cook for themselves. The kind-hearted Leona helps everyone, but on her own terms. This princess refuses to be gentle, humble, and kind, just because that’s what’s expected of a fairytale princess! 

The Princess Who Did A Runner is a picture book full of sharp humour that will even offer big children and adults plenty of food for thought. It was nominated for the Arvid Lydecken Award 2023.

Warm congratulations to the authors!

Exciting news for our children’s list: The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz is travelling to Norway, where it will be published by Mangschou.

This is the 8th deal for this spooky title, which has also been adapted to the screen.

The book follows Stina, a young girl who is sent to the sanatorium of Raspberry Hill to cure her illness. Raspberry Hill is in the middle of the healing countryside, where city dwellers with lung diseases end up. Many of the child patients treated there are from poor families – like Stina. The sanatorium feels like a castle to Stina. It is vast and full of long corridors and echoes. It is also a very lonely place, until one day Stina meets Ruben. The boy starts turning up when they should be sleeping, taking her on nightly expeditions to forbidden parts of the building – like the eastern wing, which has recently burned down.

Little by little Stina starts to realize that everything is not quite right in the sanatorium. Why isn’t her mother writing back to her? Why do the nurses seem so afraid? What really happened in the fire? And what is Ruben trying to warn her about?

Raspberry Hill is crime author Eva Frantz’s first children’s book – a suspenseful horror story for middle grade readers. It starts a series of stand-alone horror novels set in early 20th century that take their young readers on a journey back in time. The book was awarded Runeberg Junior Prize in 2019.

Warm congratulations to the author!