Destruction by Iida Rauma sold to Denmark, Hungarian offer on the table

Destruction by Iida Rauma is travelling to Denmark, marking the 2nd foreign deal for this ground-breaking work. The Danish rights for the title have been acquired by Jensen & Dalgaard, and there is an offer for the Hungarian rights on the table.

Destruction (Hävitys, 2022)

Destruction by Iida Rauma, the winner of the Finlandia Prize in 2022, has been sold to Denmark, where it will be published by Jensen & Dalgaard, and there is currently an offer from Hungary on the table.

This marks the second foreign deal for this title, whose Swedish edition is due in spring 2024.

Destruction by Iida Rauma quickly caught critics’ and readers’ attention in early 2022 thanks to its combination of a strong and captivating literary voice, an impressive thematic depth and its ability to bring to the fore a social issue often overlooked. In Destruction, Iida Rauma turns the spotlight onto school bullying, and how different rules apply to discrimination and violence when faced by a child rather than by an adult.

Author Iida Rauma

The book follows A, a young teacher and bullying survivor, whose past catches up with her during a nightly jog around the city of Turku. A familiar figure triggers a series of memories and events that take A on a deep dive into the personal destruction she escaped, into the collective destruction suffered by her city in the past, and the one suffered by our planet’s ecosystem right now.

Destruction has been reviewed as “a dazzling demonstration of art’s potential to expose societal structures” by Turun Sanomat newspaper, highlighting its extraordinary ability to span from local to global, from the experience of a single individual to phenomena that affect the world as a whole. Destruction is Rauma’s third novel, preceded by The Book of Disappearances and On Sex and Mathematics.

Helsingin Sanomat newspaper review

Jensen & Dalgaard is a Danish independent publisher whose list is the home of many award-winning Finnish authors, among whom Matias Riikonen and Runeberg Prize nominee Anu Kaaja.

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