Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen continues to enchant critics and readers: the book has scored a glowing review on the New York Times newspaper, penned by Alida Becker.
Becker was an editor at the Book Review for 30 years and is the first winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for excellence in reviewing, and she approaches Beasts of the Sea highlighting how despite being set in the past, the story carries weight even into the present day. In Becker’s words “this eloquent, impassioned novel uses the demise of a gentle mammal to chart mankind’s evolution from arrogant explorer of nature to “as great a threat as an asteroid or a flood” to other species. You can find the full review here on the New York Times website.
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. In December 2025, Beasts of the Sea was chosen as Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Book Club book of the month. In the US, it is out with Little, Brown.
Warmest congratulations to the author and the publisher!