Breaking news just days before the London Book Fair: the Czech publisher Host has just acquired The Helsinki Trilogy, by the legendary Finnish author Pirkko Saisio, as well as her newest novel Passion (2021).
An almost 1600-page acquisition is no small deed, and the Host’s publisher Nikola Kochová is excited about going big on Finnish literature:
“We are very happy to finally publish The Helsinki Trilogy by Pirkko Saisio, and also her newest novel Passion. These literary gems catch readers from the first words and tell great stories in such an extraordinary way.”
Host is the 6th foreign publisher to be won over by Saisio’s classic trilogy: last autumn, the American publisher Two Lines Press, who will be publishing the third part of the trilogy, The Red Book of Farewells (translated by Mia Spangenberg), also acquired the other two titles: The Lowest Common Multiple (1988) and The Backlight (2000).
Before that, the whole trilogy was pre-empted in the Netherlands by De Geus, in France by Robert Laffont, and in Germany by Klett-Cotta. In Hungary, the trilogy is published by Polar.
Saisio’s Autofictional trilogy is one of the masterpieces in Finnish literature. Each novel was nominated for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, the last one finally taking the prize. The latest nomination for Saisio, who has during her long career received numerous literary awards, came for her bestselling novel Passion – a color-saturated, Tarkovskian chronicle of Europe.
Check out our recent Author in Focus newsletter and learn more about Saisio’s work!