Author: Chiara Stanziani

Antti Hurskainen’s A Wooden Prayer will be travelling to Hungary, where it will be published by Polar.

A Wooden Prayer is the third novel by Antti Hurskainen, published this autumn to rave reviews. Just last week, it was nominated is for the Finlandia Prize, the largest and most prestigious literary award in Finland, and it is also a nominee for the Torch-bearer Prize, given to a work with most international potential.

The Hungarian publishing house Polar has become known for its quality list of Nordic fiction. From Finland, it has acquired several awarded works, including Pirkko Saisio’s Helsinki trilogy, Mikko Rimminen’s Red Nose Day and If It Looks Like It, Anni Kytömäki’s Margarita, Selja Ahava‘s The Woman Who Loved Insects, Kari Hotakainen’s Story and Lifeline, Minna Rytisalo’s Lempi and Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea, and has thus become the stronghold of Finnish literary fiction in Hungary.

A Wooden Prayer is a story of faith, love and the consequences of your actions. Helsingin Sanomat newspaper has reviewed it as “a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.”

A Wooden Prayer is Antti Hurskainen’s third novel. Hurskainen’s works often deal with the intersection between literature, popular culture, and religion.

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

More amazing news for our children’s list: The Princess Who Did a Runner by Saara Kekäläinen and illustrated by Netta Lehtola, is travelling to Latvia, where it will be published by Latvijas Mediji. This marks the 5th deal for this witty, adorable title.

The book follows Leona, a young princess who does a runner when she learns of the fate that awaits her: she must marry a prince in order to save her kingdom. 

Leona jumps from one princess fairytale to the next in order to save herself from the age-old burdens of princesses that lurk around every corner – marriage and household chores. Along the way she meets many characters including a melancholic mirror, the species-changing Swanhilda, and princes with a penchant for glass shoes, menacing pouts, and rescue mission obsessions – not to mention seven adult men who are short of stature and don’t want to learn to clean and cook for themselves. The kind-hearted Leona helps everyone, but on her own terms. This princess refuses to be gentle, humble, and kind, just because that’s what’s expected of a fairytale princess! 

The Princess Who Did A Runner is a picture book full of sharp humour that will even offer big children and adults plenty of food for thought. It was nominated for the Arvid Lydecken Award 2023.

Warm congratulations to the authors!

Exciting news for our children’s list: The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz is travelling to Norway, where it will be published by Mangschou.

This is the 8th deal for this spooky title, which has also been adapted to the screen.

The book follows Stina, a young girl who is sent to the sanatorium of Raspberry Hill to cure her illness. Raspberry Hill is in the middle of the healing countryside, where city dwellers with lung diseases end up. Many of the child patients treated there are from poor families – like Stina. The sanatorium feels like a castle to Stina. It is vast and full of long corridors and echoes. It is also a very lonely place, until one day Stina meets Ruben. The boy starts turning up when they should be sleeping, taking her on nightly expeditions to forbidden parts of the building – like the eastern wing, which has recently burned down.

Little by little Stina starts to realize that everything is not quite right in the sanatorium. Why isn’t her mother writing back to her? Why do the nurses seem so afraid? What really happened in the fire? And what is Ruben trying to warn her about?

Raspberry Hill is crime author Eva Frantz’s first children’s book – a suspenseful horror story for middle grade readers. It starts a series of stand-alone horror novels set in early 20th century that take their young readers on a journey back in time. The book was awarded Runeberg Junior Prize in 2019.

Warm congratulations to the author!

Fantastic news for our author Marja Kyllönen: she has been awarded the Distinguished Artist Award by the Kalevala Society Foundation. The jury have motivated their choice as follows:

“Marja Kyllönen’s (b. 1975) third novel, The Undeparted (Teos 2022), is a kind of generational novel about the transgenerational effects of individual actions and emotions. The most significant and distinctive element of Kyllönen’s narrative is the language she has developed. She combines images, words and parables from folklore, magic, dialects, Kalevala and Kanteletar into her language. When existing words are not enough, she develops new ones that fit naturally into the narrative. Kyllönen builds a language that has never been seen before in fiction. The Undeparted is a valuable addition to the union of Finnish folklore and fiction. Themes familiar from folklore are implanted in the world of contemporary readers, mainly in a style that can be described as magical-lyrical. It is a feat that is unlikely to be matched by anyone else.”

Warm congratulations to the author!

Finnish poetry on stage at the Frankfurt book fair.

The project Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow is taking Finnish poetry to the Frankfurt book fair opening this Tuesday. The project is a joint venture by Slovenian, Polish, Hungarian, Serbian and Finnish poets and organisations, and it aims to bring poetry to young people, teachers and local communities in all partner countries. In all these countries, the project includes is one central poet, a team and 10 young poets.

An anthology of poems by the central poets of the five countries will be published, including 25 poems in seven different languages – also in English and in German.

The Finnish poetry programme in Frankfurt consists of the following events:

Wednesday 18th October at 18.00, a Finnish language poetry meeting at the Finnish Assembly, Carl-Goerdeler-Straße 1A, Frankfurt am Main

Thursday 19th October at 19.30, an international poetry meeting at Internationales Theather Frankfurt

On Saturday 21st October, an international poetry meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Finnish stand 4.1 B 35

On Saturday 21st October, a Finnish language poetry meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Finnish stand 4.1 B 35

Information of the programme of different countries in the project can be found on the Facebook page for Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow here.