Author: Urpu Strellman

The best Finnish debut of 2023 – that is, the winner of Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize – Beasts of the Sea, has reached 20 language areas with its most recents sales to the Czech Paseka, Lithuanian Alma Littera and Albanian Muza, and an offer on the table for the Arabic rights.

The latest publishers for Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea are well-known publishers from Czech Republic, Lithuania and Albania.

In Czech, the beast of the sea has swam to Paseka, the publisher of authors such as Alice Munro, Douglas Stuart, Vladimir Nabokov, Édouard Louis, and Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Paseka, known for its quality translations and emphasis on the graphic design and typesetting of its titles, has published from Finland before quite a few authors, including Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen – a co-nominee for Finlandia Prize with Iida Turpeinen – and Antti Leikas.

In Lithuania, the country’s biggest publishing house Alma Littera will be taking care of Beasts of the Sea. Their publishing house includes a high number of literary names, including Nobel Prize winners Abdulrazak Gurnah, Peter Handke, and Louise Glück. From Finland, Alma Littera has published, among others, novels by Minna Rytisalo and Tommi Kinnunen.

Albanian Muza is a publishing house founded in 2019, with already an interesting list of both fiction, children’s titles and nonfiction. From Finland, Muza has already published a good number of titles, including Mia Kankimäki.

Beasts of the Sea, published in Finland by publishing house S&S, has written Finnish literary history on the international arena, as its rights were quickly sold to a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. The international publishers at the moment are (with an Arabic offer on the table):

Albania, Muza
Catalan, Cossetània
Czech Republic, Paseka
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
English, MacLehose (UK) and Little, Brown (US) (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
World French, Autrement (auction)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Lithuania, Alma Littera 
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Poland, Poznanskie (pre-empted)
Portuguese (in Portugal), Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska
Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)

In addition to this remarkable success abroad, the novel has already gained three nominations for literary awards, and just a bit over a week ago it took one of them and won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, given to the best debut of the year.

The novel also is a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize, given to the most internationally potential Finnish novel.

The novel is a science-fueled story of extinctions with a huge marine mammal, Steller’s sea cow, as its protagonist. With her short, concise sentence and the skills of a great storyteller, Turpeinen has created a page-turning literary work is that is hugely topical despite the fact that the events of the novel take place in 18th, 19th and 20th century.

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature.

The internationally most successful Finnish language debut ever, Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea, has reached 18 areas with its sales to the Polish Wydawnictwo Poznańskie. The novel is also a nominee for three major literary awards in Finland.

The latest publisher for Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea is Polish Poznanskie, publisher of authors such as Toni Morrison, Anthony Doerr, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Douglas Stuart, and Bernardine Evaristo.

Rights Manager Paulina Surniak from Poznańskie said:

“I believe that the huge international interest in Beasts of the Sea is well justified. It’s a gorgeously written, poetic, raw and provocative book that tackles an important subject. How are we connected to other species? How can we live with the understanding that human beings have done so much harm? It has the charm of a traditional narrative, full of adventures, explorers and a sense of wonder, and it combines it with timely questions. I’m thrilled that we’ll be able to include it into our list.”

Beasts of the Sea, published in Finland by publishing house S&S, has written Finnish literary history on the international arena, as its rights were quickly sold to a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. Currently, the rights have been sold to 15 areas, with offers on the table for 3 more (Arabic, Catalan and Czech). The international publishers are:

World English, MacLehose and Little, Brown (pre-empted)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
World French, Autrement (auction)
World Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Poland, Poznanskie (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Portugal, Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska.

In addition to this remarkable success abroad, the novel has already gained three nominations for literary awards. It is a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize, given to the most internationally potential Finnish novel. It is also a nominee for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, given to the best debut of the year.

The novel is a science-fueled story of extinctions with a huge marine mammal, Steller’s sea cow, as its protagonist. With her short, concise sentence and the skills of a great storyteller, Turpeinen has created a page-turning literary work is that is hugely topical despite the fact that the events of the novel take place in 18th, 19th and 20th century.

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature.

The internationally most successful Finnish debut ever, Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea, has been nominated for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, after nominations for the Torch-bearer Prize and the best debut prize.

After an immense international success and sales soon closed to 16 language areas, Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea has started collecting also recognition on the Finnish soil. After nominations for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize as the best debut of the year and the nomination for the Torch-bearer Prize, the novel is now also a candidate for the Finlandia Prize, the biggest and most prestigious literary award in Finland.

The Finlandia Prize jury stated:
“Man’s relationship to nature and other animal species and the exploitation of animals as raw material for human society is a core theme in contemporary ethical-philosophical debates. Beasts of the Sea takes a riveting approach to this theme, melding the history of science with fine-grained portrayals of characters from various periods. Beasts of the Sea brings an unfamiliar creature to such vivid life that, as a reader, one is compelled to visit the museum and breathe the same air as its skeleton.”

Beasts of the Sea has written Finnish literary history already now on the international arena, as its rights have been quickly sold to a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. Currently, the rights have been sold to 14 areas, with offers on the table for two more (Catalan and Czech). The international publishers are:

World English, MacLehose and Little, Brown (pre-empted)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
World French, Autrement (auction)
World Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Portugal, Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska.

The novel is a science-fueled story of extinctions with a huge marine mammal, Steller’s sea cow, as its protagonist. With her short, concise sentence and the skills of a great storyteller, Turpeinen has created a page-turning literary work is that is hugely topical despite the fact that the events of the novel take place in 18th, 19th and 20th century.

Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature.

Finlandia Prize is Finland’s biggest literary award, given out in three categories: fiction, children’s and young adult literature, and nonfiction. Each award is worth 30,000 euros. The winners will be announced on 30th November.

In Hurskainen’s third novel, a man of faith does an act of mercy and faces the consequences.

One of the six nominees for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, is Antti Hurskainen’s novel A Wooden Prayer. The novel tells about a verger, a man of faith, and a single father to a five-year-old girl. Unique in its profound and powerful ethos, the novel has been received in Finland with praising reviews.

Finlandia Prize jury stated :
“Faith, hope and love are elemental in Christian doctrine but seldom examined in contemporary literature. This novel is brave enough to not shy away from them and to question the workaday Lutheran attitude to faith. The novel is an exceptionally passionate story about the steadfast faith of a person that radiates into their everyday actions. Hurskainen’s language is as sharp as the main character’s thinking.”

Other reviews of the novel include, among others, the following characterizations:

“Intellectually stimulating novel glows with negativity. […] A Wooden Prayer is a harsh novel that has little regard for curling into an armchair.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

“Hurskainen has written a catechism for our time. […] Faith, hope, love, suffering and forgiveness are not just biblical concepts. They are themes that share a link with all human life, and the Bible might work as a useful tool in approaching them. If you can’t be bothered to crack open the Bible, you can at least read A Wooden Prayer.”
– Kulttuuritoimitus.fi literature magazine

We are most happy to welcome Antti Hurskainen to the Helsinki Literary Agency, with huge congratulations of the nomination!

Antti Hurskainen (b. 1986) has written four critically acclaimed collections of essays and three novels: 22—A Story About Eating (2019), Withering (2021), and A Wooden Prayer (2023). A Wooden Prayer, lauded by critics, has been nominated for the Torch-bearer Prize as well as Finlandia, the largest literature prize in Finland. His work often deals with literature, popular culture and religion.

Finlandia Prize is Finland’s biggest literary award, given out in three categories: fiction, children’s and young adult literature, and nonfiction. Each award is worth 30,000 euros. The winners will be announced on 30th November.

Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea starred by the extinct, strange sea mammal, Steller’s sea cow, continues it journey to new areas.

Beasts of the Sea has written Finnish literary history on the international arena, as its rights were quickly sold to a dozen areas with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. With its success, the novel is the internationally most widely sold Finnish language debut ever.

The latest foreign rights sales are to Slovenia, where the country’s biggest publishing house Mladinska acquired the rights. In Portugal, the rights were sold to Porto Editora, the publisher of authors such as José Saramago and Annie Ernaux and in Greece, to Ikaros, which publishes Odysseus Elytis, George Saunders and Marieke Lucas Rijneveld among others.

Currently, the rights have been sold to 14 areas, with offers on the table for two more (Catalan and Czech). The international publishers are:

World English, MacLehose and Little, Brown (pre-empted)
German, Fischer (pre-empted)
World French, Autrement (auction)
World Spanish, Seix Barral (pre-empted)
Italy, Neri Pozza (pre-empted)
Dutch, Singel (pre-empted)
Sweden, Albert Bonnier (pre-empted)
Norway, Gyldendal (pre-empted)
Denmark, People’s (pre-empted)
Estonia, Tänapäev
Greece, Ikaros 
Hungary, Polar
Portugal, Porto Editora
Slovenia, Mladinska.