Month: August 2025

The wait is over: the English Penguin Modern Classic edition of Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio is out now, and we’re delighted!

Pirkko Saisio is the grand dame of the Finnish literary and dramatic scene and her Helsinki Trilogy consists of Lowest Common Denominator, Backlight, and The Red Book of Farewells. The Helsinki Trilogy is an autofictional trilogy that carries the reader through the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of a girl who wanted to be a boy and started calling herself “her” when she was eight years of age​, becoming both the narrator and the protagonist of her own story, object and subject of her storytelling.

The trilogy starts with Lowest Common Denominator (1998). In the beginning of the novel, the main character, “she”, is already a middle-aged mother. When her father dies, things get shoved o​ut of their place​. Her memories take her back to her childhood in the 1950s – to a story, which is also about to change. The following novels, The Backlight (2000) and The Red Book of Farewells (2003) deal with the author’s adolescence and coming-of-age, personally and artistically.

The strong themes of the trilogy – the relationship between an individual and the society, sexuality and being queer, and finding your voice – are told in a fragmentary, lyrical style, descriptive of Saisio. As the background, there is Helsinki, changing as the decades go by. The series is an established classic in Finland, and the Helsinki Trilogy has been acclaimed as a readers’ and critics’ favourite, with The Red Book of Farewells being crowned as the best Finnish work of the century.

​Saisio is currently the only living Finnish author whose works are included in the Penguin Modern Classics list. The trilogy is also out in German with Klett-Cotta, in French with Robert Laffont​, in Czech​ with Host, in D​utch with De Geu​s, and has already travelled to 11 foreign language territories.

The next instalment in the trilogy, Backlight, will be out with Penguin in March 2026.

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

Droemer Knaur has pre-empted the German rights to the Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala in a significant three-book deal.

Show-stopping news from Germany: Droemer Knaur has pre-empted the German rights to the Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala, in a significant three-book deal, marking the second foreign language territory for the series. The series has been previously sold to De Fontein in the Netherlands.

Droemer Knaur needs no introductions in the publishing world, but let’s simply rejoice the fact: Ojala’s series will be published by one of the leading German publishing houses, with a list boasting an impressive variety of fiction and non-fiction. Ojala’s name will enjoy the company of such authors as Camilla Läckberg, Anders de la Motte, Ingar Johnsrud, Claire Mackintosh, Kimberly McCreight, S. K. Tremayne, M. W. Craven, Douglas Preston & Lyncoln Child, among others.

The Silk Road North is set in Tornio-Haparanda, on the Swedish-Finnish border; the twin city has been plagued by a crime wave which keeps claiming new victims. Sergeant Ronja Jentzch investigates murders that lead to the trail of a dangerous synthetic drug. While police are fighting a helpless battle, unexpected connections to higher instances begin to come to daylight.  As the frozen sea brings deadly substances over to seemingly calm and safe communities, cases of inhumane cruelty, despair-driven crimes, and international meddling become a daily challenge for Jentzsch and her team. Revered by readers, the series brings to light the long-silenced truth about the rise of international drug crime in northern Finland.

Anu Ojala (b. 1972) is an author and lawyer living in Rovaniemi in the Finnish Lapland who knows the background of the Arctic drug war well. She has worked in a law firm and at the University of Lapland, and has previously written novels for young readers. Her Silk Road North series consists of three volumes so far: The Silk Road North, Death Knell, and The Skynet.

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