Author: Chiara Stanziani

Merja Mäki’s novel Before the Birds about Karelian refugees in 1940 became horribly topical with Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Now the novel has gotten its first foreign edition in Sweden – and it is on stage for the first time in Finland.

Before the Birds by Merja Mäki was published in Swedish translation in mid-October (as Innan fåglarna vänder åter, translated by Mattias Huss) by Historiska Media, a beautiful Lund-based publishing house specialising in history and novel set in historical periods.

Vi Läser (‘We Read’), a literary magazine only focusing on books and literary world, reviewed Mäki’s debut with high praise. Literary critic Yukiko Duke stated that “a couple of years ago this book was all my Finnish friends spoke about, men and women, young and old. It is now easy to understand their enthusiasm. […] It is an incredibly well narrated story of the brutality of the war and the pain of being in exile.”

Also BTJ library magazine praised the novel:

“Mäki’s novel is a great reading experience. The story is extremely well drafted, exciting – what will happen? – and is driven by a language which is as clear as spring water. In an absolutely brilliant way Before the Birds paints a picture of peoples’ fight for life in bad times.”

Out also in audio, the novel (read by actress Stina Ekblad), has been collecting glowing reviews, achieving a 4.5/5 rating.

In Finland, Before the Birds has been recently adapted into a play, currently on the scene at the Seinäjoki city theatre, with shows all throughout the winter. The play has been received with critical acclaim, praising both the acting and the fresh choreography of the play.

The title has been sold in addition to Sweden so far also to Ukraine and France. In Finland it has been a bestseller, and it is the winner of the Torch-bearer Prize in 2022. A new book by Mäki, a stand-alone novel set in the same historical setting, will come out in early 2024.

A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen has received its third award nomination: after being nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the Torch Bearer prize, the title is now a nominee for the Savonia Award.

Thrilling news for our fiction’s list: A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen has been nominated for the Savonia Award.

A Wooden Prayer by Antti Hurskainen has been reviewed as “a catechism of our time”: in it, Turtola, a verger in a small community spends his days working wood, talking with the pastor and being a single father to Monika, his five-year-old daughter.

When catastrophe strikes, Turtola is faced with questions larger than life, and tries to follow his personal ethics and choose mercy. The consequences are merciless.

For the Savonia Award six nominees, all remarkable works of literature published over the last 12 months, have been selected from 95 works read by the award committee.

The nomination comes at a great time for A Wooden Prayer: the book is already a Finlandia Prize nominee, and has been sold to Hungary.

The winner of the Savonia Award will be announced on December 12th.

Congratulations to all nominees, and fingers crossed!

Delightful news for our children’s list: A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large has been nominated for the IBBY Honor List 2024.

IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) publishes every other year a list over remarkable children’s and YA literature. The IBBY Honour List gathers book from all over the world, since IBBY is active in 78 countries.

IBBY Finland has nominated 5 works, among which is A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large, running in the category of translation into Finnish, since the work is originally written in Swedish. The translator into Finnish is Outi Menna.

A Giraffe’s Heart is Unbelievably Large by Sofia & Amanda Chanfreau is a multi-awarded international best-seller for children: it won the Finlandia Prize in 2022, and was nominated for the Runeberg Prize the same year. After great success with both the Finnish and Swedish audience here in Finland, it has so far been acquired in 14 countries.

Warm congratulations to the authors (and the translator!) and don’t miss out on this title!

Exciting news for our children’s list: Ilja Karsikas and Sanna Mander have both received an honorary mention for the Rudolf Koivu Prize 2023.

Ilja Karsikas was nominated for his book The Unicorn, a stunning narration of family life touching on the topic of alcoholism. The jury have motivated their choice as follows: “Despite the heavy subject matter, the book’s illustrations breathe and bring gentle comfort to the reader. The character of the unicorn is an impressive and memorable illustration.”

Sanna Mander was nominated for her book My Teeny-Tiny Witch, an amusing and visually bubbly work that offers a more forgiving view on difficult feelings we all experience, like anger and disappointment. The jury have motivated their choice as follows: “An apt portrayal of today’s family life after divorce. The character of the mother is wonderfully contemporary in her visual aesthetics.”

Warm congratulations to the authors, and don’t miss out on these titles!

The hot Finnish book of the autumn, Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen, has been awarded as the best debut of the year.

Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen has become the literary phenomenon of the autumn not only internationally with sales to 16 areas and offers on the table for 4 more, but also on its home turf, with nominations for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, and also the Torch-bearer Prize. The novel, published in September, has sold in Finland so far 10,000 copies in all formats.

Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize is an award worth 15,000 euros given to best debut of the year in all fiction genres. The jury motivated the choice as follows:

“The Steller’s sea cow, which became extinct in 1768, soon after its discovery, […] binds together [in the novel] a group of people from three different centuries. Turpeinen whittles a base of vast background information from the history of science into precision strikes depicting her characters’ most telling moments. At the same time, the novel brings the ecological ruptures and freefall of the entire world to the reader’s skin. The result will move you and have you holding your breath.

As the title states [the Finnish title translates as ‘living creatures’], mankind needs to be seen as a part of Animalia, no better than other species. We know more than other living creatures, but still don’t often act according to that knowledge. From the perspective of natural history, no more than the blink of an eye has passed from the era of the sea cows, and now we ourselves are sowing destruction which in the next blink of an eye may put us next to the vanished species preserved in a museum.

Beasts of the Sea, which so beautifully portrays the vulnerability of its characters, does not leave us without hope. We see that life goes on, always slightly different. The past cannot be brought back, but museums and books will keep it alive. And at its best, a book sweeps its readers to live the past themselves, Turpeinen’s world-class novel does.”

Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize is given out by Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The jury consists of literary critics, journalists and the previous winner of the award: this year, Susanna Hast, who brought home the award in 2022 with her autotheoretical novel Body of Evidence.

The most recent foreign rights news of Beasts of the Sea are here.