Author: Chiara Stanziani

A Low-Budget War Film by Marjo Niemi is travelling to Italy, where it will be published by Cue Press

Finlandia nominee A Low-Budget War Film by award-winning author Marjo Niemi is starting its journey out into the world: Cue Press has secured the Italian rights, marking the first foreign rights deal for this title.

A Low-Budget War Film follows a highly educated city-dweller as she heads back to her run-down, post-industrial hometown after her father’s death, and finds herself an outsider: she no longer belongs to the place she grew up in, but she doesn’t feel at home in the new social setting she lives in, either. Stuck in between social classes, and torn by social tensions, the narrator finds that it’s surprisingly hard to find a place in the world even in the country of equal opportunities.

A Low-Budget War Film is not the kind of working-class novel where the spirit of the united grows into a collective force. Instead, it shows with a generous dose of dark humor how class identity is fragmented into individual pursuits, and the shame is inherited through generations. The novel was nominated for the Finlandia Prize, the largest and most prestigious in the country, in 2025.

Marjo Niemi is an award-winning author and playwright. Mother of All Losses (2017) won the Runeberg Prize and Hearing (2021) was nominated for the Finlandia Prize. A Low-Budget War Film is her sixth novel, published in Finland by Teos.

Cue Press is an independent publishing house based in Imola, northern Italy, and specialised in theatre plays and the works of playwrights. Their list includes an ambitious selection of Italian and international fiction and plays. They notably were the Italian publisher of Jon Fosse before his Nobel Prize win.

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

Author Ellen Strömberg continues to charm Italian readers: she is attending the Démadé Festival in Livorno, Italy, where she will be interviewed by her translator Samanta Milton Knowles.

Ellen Strömberg’s August Prize winning novel We’ll Just Ride Past has been a success in Italy, where the book is out with Terre di Mezzo: the book was shortlisted for the prestigious Andersen Prize, and nominated for the Mare di Libri Prize.

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.

Ellen Strömberg’s latest novel, This Is Literally Hell, has been receiving glowing reviews and catching the eye of critics and editors across multiple territories. This Is Literally Hell follows Ebba Blau, who is 12, almost 13, and has one school year to become cool before she has to leave her hometown as she and Mom are set to move away to live with Mom’s boyfriend. Ebba has decided she will have a movie-worthy makeover: she’ll become cooler, more popular, more stylish, master a morning routine, and get her first boyfriend while she still can. She sets out to become friends with the popular girls and get together with Romeo, the best-looking boy at art school, but how will bubbly, chatty, and awkward Ebba manage, given her tendency to embarrass herself and get drawn into white lies that grow bigger and bigger? This Is Literally Hell is Ebba’s diary, and it brims with drama, embarrassing stuff, and big feelings – but also a longing for friendship, love, and new beginnings.

Stay tuned!

The Likeness by Leena Krohn is travelling to Denmark, where it will be published by Jensen & Dalgaard.

The Likeness by Leena Krohn is continuing its journey out into the world as Jensen & Dalgaard has secured the Danish rights, marking the second foreign rights deal for this title.

In The Likeness a quiet, unassuming, and not very talented painter who goes by the name of Horkka works in a small art studio, mentored by a much more famous artist, Lysander. The latter is constantly busy or away, so Horkka gets tasked with taking over some of his less-important jobs: portraits commissioned by various people. Followed by Horkka’s sensitive gaze, a colourful array of characters settle down to pose. Horkka patiently listens to each of them until the portrait is done or – more often than not – the session gets interrupted. Will the portraits please their owners? Will they reflect the likeness? In her newest novel, legendary author Leena Krohn ponders what gaze is and what does it actually mean to see someone.

Jensen & Dalgaard is an independent publisher based in Nyborg whose list includes a carefully curated selection of literary titles ranging from picture books and children’s literature all the way to fiction and classics. They are the Danish publisher of, among others, Suliko by Pirkko Saisio, Matara by Matias Riikonen, and Destruction by Iida Rauma.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen has been nominated for the European Literature Prize in the Netherlands.

Wonderful news: the literary phenomenon Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen is running for the European Literature Prize in Dutch translation by Annemarie Raas.

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. The book, sold to 29 language areas, is already out in several languages. The Hungarian edition came out recently and scored a glowing review and feature on Telex, a major independent news portal in Hungary.

he 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. The shortlist will be published in June.

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

Bogoo is continuing with the Senior Squad series in Denmark, having secured the rights to more instalments in the series in a three-book deal.

The Senior Squad by Malin Klingeberg continues to entertain and steal laughter in Denmark: Bogoo is continuing with the series, having secured the Danish rights to more instalments in a three-book deal.

The Senior Squad series follows a squad of crime-fighting pensioners who form a secret task force of elderly but sharp and inventive seniors that stand between the criminals and their evil plans. Often, the pensioners wouldn’t be stop the crimes without the help of a young boy called Patrik, who is happy to take part in all the adventures. 

The series has been a success in Finland, both in its Swedish-language and its Finnish-language edition. Hilarious and full of action, the Senior Squad series consists of six volumes, each focusing on a different character. Bogoo previously acquired Patrik and the Senior Squad and Irene and the Moneyhoover (volumes #1-2) and now secured the rights to The Fake Bernice (#3), The Fantastic Alfredo (#4), and Rakel’s Miracle (#5). The fourth Senior Squad book, The Fantastic Alfredo, received the prestigious Runeberg Junior Prize in 2017.

Malin Klingenberg is one of Finland’s most prominent Swedish-speaking authors. Her extensive production, ranging from picture books all the way to YA, has been loved, read, and translated into many languages all over the world. Her works are published in Finland by Schildts & Söderströms.

Bogoo is a Danish publishing house with a focus on practical non-fiction and children’s and YA books. They are the Danish home of our very own The Smuggler’s Treasure by Axel Åhman & Ola Skogäng, among others.

Congratulations to the author and the publishers!