Today is the day: Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen is out now in the beautiful US edition by Little, Brown.
Beasts of the Sea has been making waves on the other side of the Atlantic ever since the publication was announced: Turpeinen was the cover author on Publishers Weekly, where the book received a starred review as a “fantastic debut [that] interweaves the fate of an extinct aquatic species with the stories of the people who discovered and destroyed it. […] Turpeinen matches the heights of Andrea Barrett with her detailed descriptions of the natural world and intimate character portraits, offering a vast sweep of evolutionary history shot through with impressionistic scenes, whether of Steller watching a sea cow play like a boisterous child or Olson mourning her tubercular father. This tour de force of science and storytelling is not to be missed.“
Beasts of the Sea went on to receive extensive features, including being listed in Goodreads’ selection of New Books to Read in November, and the Top 50 Most Popular Books Published in November, on The Millions’ Great Fall 2025 Book Preview and The Globe and Mail’s 61 books to lose yourself in this fall.
Library Journal also gave the book a starred review, stating: “Turpeinen’s sweeping novel condenses time, highlighting the brevity of human lifespans while also underscoring their equally destructive impact within those brief years. The evocative and elegiac story highlights how humanity is complicit in species extinction.”
Chicago Review of Books included the novel on their 12 Must-Read Books of November, writing “This mythic masterpiece is sure to stick with you.”
Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries that approaches natural diversity through individual destinies. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries. The novel won multiple awards, and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize domestically, and ran as the Best Foreign Book of the Year in France in 2024, and for the Premio Strega in Italy earlier this year. In Finland Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S.
Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!