News

Juhani Karila has earned a spot in literature rankings of this year’s best translated works across the English-speaking world. His latest novel has been published in English by Pushkin Press for the UK with the title Summer Fishing in Lapland, and by Restless Books for the US with the title Fishing For the Little Pike.

Stunning news for our author Juhani Karila: his latest novel has taken the English-speaking world by storm and has earned a spot in several rankings of this year’s best translated works. Karila’s novel is out with Pushkin Press as Summer Fishing in Lapland in the UK and as Fishing for the Little Pike with Restless Books in the US.

On the British newspaper Daily Mail, literary critic Jamie Buxton has picked Summer Fishing in Lapland (Pushkin) as the book of the year. Buxton stated as follows: “I loved this off-kilter tale of myth and mundanity — a deep dive into a morass of Finnish folklore and small-town life. A coming-home story and a coming-to-terms story of grief and monsters, as Elina must face down old transgressions to catch a pike and save a life.”

On World Literature Today magazine, Michelle Johnson has featured Karila’s Fishing For the Little Pike in the 75 Notable Translations 2023 list. Karila is in the excellent company of, among others, Nobel-prize winners Annie Ernaux and Jon Fosse, and of fellow Finnish author Pirkko Saisio.

Fishing For the Little Pike also earned a spot on the EuropeNow literary journal, where it is featured in the 2023 Favorite Books in Translation list. Also featured in the list are Jon Fosse’s A Shining, Dino Buzzati’s The Stronghold and Arto Paasilinna’s The Year of the Hare.

Fishing For the Little Pike, which is Karila’s debut novel, has been a literary sensation since its publication in 2019 by Finnish publisher Siltala. The rights have been sold to 17 territories, and the book has been adapted into a theatre play in Finland.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publishers!

The miniseries Hallonbacken, based on the novel The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz, has made its debut on screen. The book has been a hit domestically, and it has been sold to 8 territories.

Thrilling news for our young readers: the miniseries Hallonbacken (eng. Raspberry Hill), based on The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz has made its debut on the screen last Friday. The miniseries is produced by Söder Films and directed by Saara Cantell, and it will be available for streaming on Yle, the Finnish national broadcasting company, during Christmas time. In addition to the Finnish broadcast, Raspberry Hill will also be available in the rest of the Nordics on the respective national broadcast services.

The Mystery of Raspberry Hill follows Stina, a young girl, as she is sent into a sanatorium to cure her lungs. It’s the 1920s, Stina is used to modest surroundings and the sanatorium looks like a castle straight out of a fairytale. Nothing, however, is at it seems. Stina notices that something weird is afoot, but what is it?

The Mystery of 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 the Runeberg Junior Prize in 2019, and it has been sold to eight territories.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the team working on this beautiful adaptation!

Marisha Rasi-Koskinen is on tour in France to celebrate the French edition of her latest novel REC, published by Payot & Rivages.

Great news from our author Marisha Rasi-Koskinen: she is currently on tour in France to celebrate the French edition of REC, her latest novel, published in France by Payot & Rivages.

Rasi-Koskinen will be attending literature-focused events organised by FILI and the Finnish embassy in France. With her are fellow Finnish authors Pajtim Statovci and Maria Turtschaninoff, also presenting their work.

Rasi-Koskinen’s REC is a big novel about friendship and love, power and boundlessness, a travel book and a documentary, a fiction about fiction where stories and reality constantly take on new angles in new hands. In REC, we follow Lucas A, an ordinary boy with an ordinary life until he becomes special. It happens when everything begins for the first time, and everything begins when he meets Cole. Many beginnings and endings later, Lucas travels for the first time to the city where his story began. Someone is dead, someone has vanished, and Lucas travels to find answers, of course, but it doesn’t work like that. He finds new questions, his story connects with other stories.

REC has been awarded the Runeberg Prize and it also traveled to Denmark, where it is published by Jensen & Dalgaard.

Best of luck to Marisha on her tour, and don’t miss out on this title!

Light Light Light has been awarded the Best Feature Film Award at the Exgrund Filmfest in Wiesbaden, Germany, and the Queer Film of the Year Award here in Finland. The film is based on the award-winning novel with the same title by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen.

Brilliant news for Light Light Light by Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen: the film based on the novel has been released in October, and the accolades are already coming in.

Light Light Light was awarded the Best Feature Film Award and the Audience Award at the Exground Filmfest in Wiesbaden, Germany. The jury have motivated their choice as follows:

“The film manages to relate the typical themes of coming-of-age genres, like first true love, loss and problems within the family, in an original and innovative way. This is especially evident in the Chernobyl symbolism, the haunting soundtrack and the nostalgic flashbacks.

The use of lighting is also brilliant. Scenes where one would rather look away are illuminated in glistening bright light. The way the most emotional scenes unfold mesmerises the viewer visually. It is this masterful treatment of the themes of trauma and abuse as well as the magnificent actors that make this film an absolute ‘must-watch’ for us.”

Light Light Light is the story of two explosions: the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl, and first love. It is the summer of 1986, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has exploded, and Maria is a teenage girl who lives in a small town with her family. Everything in Maria’s life changes when she meets the radiant Mimi. Mimi lives with her grandmother, aunt, and two great-uncles in a household they refer to as Mayhem. A fierce, passionate, desperate love flares up between Maria and Mimi. Hot summer days at the beach and ’80s hits mingle with death, old age, illness, and fear of radioactive fallout. But the girls’ lives are filled with light light light.

Light Light Light also won the Queer Film of the Year Award, a recognition awarded on a yearly basis by the student organisation Qaareva.

Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen’s Finlandia Junior Prize-winning Light Light Light is a heart wrenching romance and a story of impossible choices made at the age of fourteen. The protagonist Mariia hates to write, so she tells her story in ways that surprise the reader and give the book depth.

The award-winning movie Light Light Light is directed by Inari Niemi, produced by Lucy Loves Stories and distributed by Nordisk Film Finland. You can watch the trailer here.

Warmest congratulations, and don’t miss out on this title!

The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja, A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen and Harry Salmenniemi’s latest novel have been nominated for the Runeberg Prize. The winner will be announced in February 2024.

Amazing news for our fiction list: The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja, A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen and Harry Salmenniemi‘s latest novel have been nominated for the Runeberg Prize.

The Ribbon Bow by Anu Kaaja is a deliciously pink and proudly art-oriented novel, where a writer is looking for intellectual, physical and spiritual enjoyment in European cities in the spirit of a contemporary Grand Tour. She sits in cafés, dances in clubs, goes to meet paintings, and engages in animated conversations with objects: the soul of things should not be belittled. Anu Kaaja’s fourth book is a sensual and analytical novel, a profound and playful paean to beauty and melancholy, a work that does not distinguish between a fetish club and an art museum. It is a an inspired portrait of objectifying people and anthropomorphising objects. The Ribbon Bow is a sweet wrapped in a critique of capitalism, resulting in an amusing experience and a sharp outlook on our day and age. 

Anu Kaaja is a young, award-winning author. With her debut Metamorphoslip in 2015 she was shortlisted for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. Since then, she was awarded the Kalevi Jäntti Literature Prize in 2020 and for her other works, Kaaja has been nominated for the Runeberg Prize (2017) and awarded the Toisinkoinen Literature Prize. 

For A Wooden Prayer this is the fourth nomination: the book has also been nominated for the Torch-Bearer Prize, the Finlandia Award and is running for the Savonia Award. A Wooden Prayer follows Turtola, the verger in a little congregation and the single father of a five-year-old girl, Monika. Turtola spends his days having long conversations with the vicar and taking care of the church. Things take a rapid turn for the worse when weird occurrences start disturbing the peace of the community and Monika is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Faced with a terrible dilemma, Turtola chooses mercy, and the consequences are merciless.

The novel, published in Finland by Siltala, has been dubbed “a catechism of our time” and “a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.” So far, the rights have been acquired in Hungary by Polar.

The Runeberg Prize is a a prestigious literary prize named after the Finnish national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is one of the most important literary awards in Finland, second only to Finlandia Prize. The prize, worth 20,000 euros, is given out in two categories: fiction and children’s books. Last year the award went to our very own Marja Kyllönen with The Undeparted, and before that to Marisha Rasi-Koskinen with REC and for children’s fiction to Karin Erlandsson with The Night Express.

Warm congratulations to the authors, and fingers crossed!