Author: Chiara Stanziani

We’ll Just Ride Past by Ellen Strömberg continues to succeed: this wonderful YA title is set to be adapted for the theatre, with its opening night due in January 2026 at the Svenska Teatern in Turku.

We’ll Just Ride Past follows Manda and Malin, a duo of best friends in ninth grade. They are nicknamed The Bicycles as they cycle everywhere looking for fun and something to do in a small town where nothing ever happens. One day Malin develops a crush on a guy working at the local pizzeria, and a series on events – both fun and not so fun – begins to unfold. We’ll Just Ride Past is an accurate portrayal of a moment in life where it’s perfectly normal to change style and music taste every week and the world awaits. In Finland, the title it is published by S&S.

We’ll Just Ride Past won the August Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in Sweden, in 2022 and its rights has already been sold for Italian, Korean, Slovenian, Polish, and Catalan.

Ellen Strömberg is a Swedish-speaking Finnish author whose production ranges from picture books to novels. We’ll Just Ride Past was a domestic and international success and her latest YA novel No Beginning No End has been received with warm praise. It is the story of Benjamin, a shy teenage boy dealing with his mother’s death, as he grows close with Tristan, a mysterious boy.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!

De Fontein has acquired the Dutch rights to The Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala, marking the first foreign language area for the series.

The Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala has started its journey out into the world with a bang: De Fontein has acquired the Dutch rights to the series in a three-book deal.

Twin city Tornio-Haparanda, on the Swedish-Finnish border, 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.

De Fontein boasts a wide selection of crime titles and is the Dutch publisher of, among others, Peter James, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, and Ida Axelsson & Åsa Bonelli. The acquiring editor at De Fontein Claudia van der Werf admitted to having a soft spot for Finland and Arctic landscapes, and has stated: “The combination of the setting that Ojala chose, combined with the particularly exciting story development and the fascinating characters in the book, [will] make this a nice addition to our list.”

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

Forest Field Notes by Venho & Pelliccioni continues to enchant Spain: the book will be a part of the Europa Illustra exhibition in Madrid next May.

Forest Field Notes by Johanna Venho & Sanna Pelliccioni (ill.) is out in Spanish in a beautiful edition by Gato Sueco, and will be featured in an upcoming exhibition in Madrid, Europa Ilustra, starting from May 9th, in which Pelliccioni will be representing Finland.

Forest Field Notes is a tender, magical story of the forest. It pays tribute to the imagination that can be awakened by nature. With Johanna Venho‘s poetic words and Sanna Pelliccioni‘s delicate illustrations, the book gently addresses the importance nearby nature has for children.

Spruce is a little girl who loves spending time in the forest, and is very observant: she sees trees, plants, flowers, but she has also seen elves, forest trolls, and fawns. All of her sightings and her experiences in the woods are collected in her field notebook.

One day she learns that her forest has been zoned, and will be cut down. Spruce decides to fight back, and starts tying notes to trees in protest. Suddenly, she finds an ally in a mysterious boy with green eyes and twigs in his hair. Who is the boy? And can they save the forest together?

In Finland, Forest Field Notes is published by Teos, and its foreign rights have already been sold in Oceania and Greece, as well as for World Spanish.

Forest Field Notes is followed by a second stand-alone book set in the same fictional universe, Travel Field Notes, in which Spruce and her family travel to Lapland by train to try and cheer up her mother, who has lost her job and slipped into depression. As she struggles and faces her difficulties, a hopeful ending is eventually in the cards, and Spruce documents everything in her field notebook, maintaining the same beautiful style of Forest Field Notes.

Don’t miss out on these titles!

The Dutch edition of Backlight by Pirkko Saisio is among the 12 nominees for the European Literature Prize in the Netherlands.

The Dutch edition of The Backlight by Pirkko Saisio, out with De Geus in translation by Annemarie Raas has been longlisted for the European Literature Prize in the Netherlands.

The prize has been awarded for 15 years and rewards the best foreign book in Dutch translation published in the past year. The 12 nominees on the longlist have been selected by booksellers in the Netherlands. A jury led by Niña Weijers will select a shortlist in June, and the winner will be announced on September 3rd. The prize amounts to 10,000 euros for the author and the translator, and was awarded last year to Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and translator Karol Lesman for the novel The Empusion.

The European Literature Prize is an initiative of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Academic-Cultural Centre SPUI25 , weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer and Athenaeum | Scheltema, with financial contribution by the Dutch Foundation for Literature. This year’s other nominees are:

– Memorial, 29 June by Tine Hoegh
– The Angel of Disappearance by Slobodan Šnajder
– There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak
– Clear by Carys Davies
– I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà
– Orbital, Samantha Harvey
– The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
– Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
– Judge on Trial by Ivan Klima
– Bad Habit by Alana S. Portero
– Watching Over Her by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

The Backlight is the second volume in Pirkko Saisio‘s world-famous Helsinki Trilogy, and it follows the protagonist during her adolescence. The book starts out in June 1968, a moment of turmoil for youth and students throughout Europe. A journey to Switzerland is a first taste of European life outside of Finland, but the protagonist is also faced with disappointments and increasing tensions between her leftist upbringing, Christianity, and her budding sexuality. Memories shape the present and the boundary between fact and fiction becomes fluid. At the same time, the work is a breath-takingly beautiful description of a young woman’s discovery of her true self.

Warm congratulations to the author, the publishers, and the translator – fingers crossed!

Finlandia winner Radio Popov by Anja Portin continues its international success: it is currently on exhibition at the Finnish Embassy & National Library for Children and Young Adults in Seoul, where it will stay until August 31. The Korean edition had been received favourably, and Radio Popov continues to do well in the country.

Radio Popov won the Finlandia Junior upon its release, and has already travelled to 25 language territories. Radio Popov follows Alfred, a nine-year-old boy who lives virtually alone. His mother is not in the picture and his father is constantly busy with work and business trips. During one of these business trips Alfred is left alone for so long he runs out of food, and electricity is cut off. When everything seems lost, Alfred is saved by a mysterious stranger who delivers food and woollen socks in lonely children’s letterboxes. It is the beginning of a wonderful adventure that will lead Alfred to a new family, and to saving more forgotten children. Alfred’s story is moving, and touches on social issues, but also contains joy, friendship, and a happy ending.

Anja Portin has quickly become a favourite among children’s authors with her middle grade novel Radio Popov. She writes about children who take matters into their own hands when grownups do not want to take responsibility or are not there to do it.