Exciting news from France: To My Brother by E.L. Karhu has been nominated for the Prix Médicis. The Médicis Prize is an international literary prize, established in 1958 and awarded every year to a domestic work of fiction, a foreign work of fiction and a work of non-fiction.
E.L. Karhu ‘s novel To My Brother has been published in France, with the title A mon frère, by La Peuplade in a translation by Claire Saint-Germain. The winner of the Prix Médicis will be announced on November 9 in Paris.
Congratulations to all nominees, and fingers crossed!
Helsinki Literary Agency’s top book of autumn 2023, Iida Turpeinen‘s Beasts of the Sea, has been sold to Tänapäev in Estonia. It will be published in Tänapäev’s series called The Red Book, featuring such autors as the Nobel Prize winners Annie Ernaux, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Peter Handke, as well as modern literary classics such as George Saunders, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Hervé Le Tellier and Kurt Vonnegut. The only other title from Finland to have made it to the series before is Our Earthly Life, by Riikka Pelo.
“Beasts of the Sea is an adventurous novel about mankind and nature, one that gives food for thought. The theme running through this relatively small book is the inevitable changing of the world, which is at times tragic, but at times, strangely, also tragicomic. The novel will attract the readers of Daniel Kehlmann’s Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World) and Richard Powers’ Overstory.”
Turpeinen’s novel was published in Finland only a few weeks ago and got a raving review in the largest newspaper of the country, Helsingin Sanomat, stating that the book is a “world-class novel” that “focuses on a single sea cow and individuals linked to it over a span of three centuries, makes the ecological ruptures and freefall of the entire world into a palpable experience”.
IIda Turpeinen
In 1741, naturalist and theologist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins the Great Northern Expedition, as Captain Vitus Bering and his crew scout out a sea route from Asia to America. Although they never reach the American mainland, they make a unique discovery: the Steller’s sea cow.
It is the start of a 200-year-long quest, and a story of natural diversity through individual destinies, of grand human ambitions and of the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed.
Terrific news for our non-fiction list: A History of Finland has been sold to Armenia, where it will be published by Newmag. This marks the 16th foreign sale for this non-fiction title by professor Henrik Meinander.
A History of Finland paints a brisk and bold picture of Finland from integrated part of the Swedish kingdom to autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian empire, gradually transformed and maturing into a conscious nation, independent state and skilful adapter of modern technology.
The History of Finland (2014)
The book places Finland in a wider Nordic and European perspective and skilfully weaves political, economic and cultural developments into an integral whole. In a departure from most conventional approaches, Meinander gives greater emphasis to recent and contemporary events.
In other words, he puts Finland into a range of historical contexts to highlight how the Baltic and European settings together have formed Finland into what it is at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Great news for our author Karin Erlandsson: The Blue Yarn has been sold to Slovenia, where it will be published by Hart. This marks the 4th foreign sale for the title.
InThe Blue YarnErlandsson weaves together a nonfiction book, where personal memories intertwine with thought and reflections on the world, weaving together an enjoyable read. To put it in Erlandsson’s own words, in her letter to readers of the German edition published by Blanvalet:
“The world may fall apart around me, but I can always knit one, perl one, and straighten out the mess and the skein. I am not the only one.
Throughout history, many women (yes, it’s mostly women) have coped with sorrows by for example knitting a beautiful hat for the deceased to wear in the grave. We have handled war by knitting socks to loved ones at the front. We have protested against patriarchy by dressing statues in striped scarves and we have protested against capitalism by coloring our own yarn.”
Mladinska Knjiga is the largest publishing house in Slovenia, boasting titles like Harry Potter, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars: we could’t have wished for a better home for this title.
The book follows Manda and Malin, who are best friends in a small town where nothing ever happens. The girls are known as the Bicycles, because they’re always riding around looking for excitement, be it people to hang out with, a party, a little love – anything goes. When they’re not riding around, they can be found loitering around the convenience store or the library.
In We’ll Just Ride Past, Strömberg, a perceptive depicter of emotional shifts and relationships, depicts in an equally believable and sharp way the restlessness of teenage, and its bittersweet nature.
