Author: Urte

The fantastic news of the week keep pouring: we are beyond thrilled to announce that three HLA authors are now nominated for Finlandia Junior Prize given to the best Children’s or Young Adult title of the year: Saara Kekäläinen & Reetta Niemensivu for Penelope and the Perilous Porridge; Sofia & Amanda Chanfreau for A Giraffe’s Heart is Unbelievably Large; and Ellen Strömberg for We’ll Just Ride Past.

We are especially happy that each nominated book respectively represents a different category: picture books, children’s novels and YA novels.

Ellen Strömberg’s young adult novel We’ll Just Ride Past can definitely be called the event of the autumn: nominated also for the most prestigious literary award in Sweden, the August Prize, the book has received major attention, and an offer from Italy is now on the table. The novel was published jointly by Schildts & Söderströms in Finland and Rabén & Sjögren in Sweden.

In the novel, Strömberg captures the life of ninth-graders in that recognizable phase in life when you have a real drive to be independent and to discover and define your identity, and when friendships have a huge impact on your decisions and desires. Strömberg has a knack for portraying the emotional landscape and world view of young people in a convincing way and she masterfully depicts the anxieties and emotional turmoil teenagers face daily.

“A credible youth novel about friendship, growing up and a great hunger for life. The author describes with precision and joy the life of teenagers in a nameless small town, the boundaries of which the main characters want to cross. The book shows what it feels like to want very much, even though you are not entirely sure what it is you want.”
– Finlandia Junior Prize Jury

“With sensitivity and accuracy [Strömberg] describes the turning point of adolescence, when the fantasies about who you want to be are suddenly put into practice, friendships are put to test and first love feels both alluring and terrifying. With the greatest respect for both her readers and her characters, Ellen Strömberg gives new life to the most iconic motif in youth literature.”
– August Prize jury

Sofia Chanfreau’s & Amanda Chanfreau’s novel for children, A Giraffes’s Heart is Unbelievably Large, is a tale of longing to be part of a family, to find one’s place in the world, and to be loved as one is. Whenever a ten-year-old Vega, who has always lived with her father, tries to ask about her mother, the only answer she gets is mysteries. Once a not-so-nice girlfriend starts dating her father, and Vega gets an unexpected pen pal, she decides to set out on an adventure to find out more about her mother. The book is a superb read for a child alone or for parents and children together.

“In its magical realism, the work takes us to places and moods that shimmer with something rare and fine. We see the world through the eyes of the narrator and the main characters, and captivating connections form between fantasy and reality. The narration is borne along by beautiful language, surprising transitions, and humor. Equally generous and idiosyncratic are the book’s illustrations, which carry us off to milieus we are in no hurry to leave.”
– Finlandia Junior Prize jury

Penelope and the Perilous Porridge, written by Saara Kekäläinen and illustrated by Reetta Niemensivu, tells a story about  a lovable knee-high girl full of attitude and mischief. When she one morning orders a treat of a break-fast garnished with caramel and sprinkles, her Dad puts in front of her the house special. A plate of porridge.

This is the beginning of an epic duel between Penelope and the porridge. Penelope sees in everyday events sprawling adventures that entrance the reader with their clever twists of the plot. What if the porridge isn’t porridge at all? What if the porridge is actually a black hole from outer space which is just waiting to swallow Penelope up and hurl her to the other side of the solar system? Or if the porridge is just a cub and its big, dangerous mum is somewhere nearby?

Which will win in the end, Penelope or the porridge?

“An ordinary bowl of breakfast porridge takes on increasingly astounding meanings in a picture book where the drama builds splendidly from spread to another. The dialogue between image and word easily traverses pages on which the element that seems visually and narratively impossible – porridge – changes, in the eye of the protagonist, to different forms: into an ambassador, a part of an art exhibition or an archaeological treasure. Can porridge ever have been pictured with such subtlety?”
– Finlandia Junior Prize jury

Finlandia Prize is the most prestigious literary award in Finland, given out yearly in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and children’s & YA literature. The award sum is 30,000 euros.

The nominees for the nonfiction category were announced yesterday, and HLA is proud to have a title running. Fiction nominees will be announced on Thursday, the 10th of November. The winners will be announced on November 30th.

Congratulations to all the authors for the nomination!

The most exciting time of the year has arrived: this week, we will find out all the nominees for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize.

First in line is nonfiction category, and we are thrilled to announce that Annika Luther’s book Rye – A Prolific History is competing with 5 other titles for the award!

Rye – A Prolific History takes the reader on a captivating, compelling journey through the millennia as it recounts the story of the grain. Crop failures and famine, the devastation caused by ergot, and innovations such as the heated barn play a role in a rich cultural history sprouting around rye, from the adoption of the “rye flower” as a symbol of conservative politics to an unusual cast of characters, such as Nikolai Vavilov, the botanist who tracked down the plant’s origins. 

The book also addresses rye’s current status a big player in the sourdough starter boom and its future in gene banks and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to preserve diversity in plant life.

Aftonbladet Newspaper stated about the book:

“There are similarities between the new popular science book Rye – A Prolific History, by the Finland Swedish novelist and biologist Annika Luther, and Patrik Svensson’s megasuccess The Book of Eels from 2019. Both authors write about cultural history, focusing on non-human subjects. Both write with curiosity and, at times, a hint of poetry, that leads the reader to unexpected places and insights about ecological relations.”

Annika Luther (b. 1958) is a biologist, award-winning author, and high school teacher. In addition to Rye: A Prolific History (2022), she has published three novels and six books for young adults, of which Letter to the Ends of the Earth (2008) was nominated for the Finlandia Junior Award and won both the Topelius Award and the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Award.

Finlandia Prize is the most prestigious literary award in Finland, given out yearly in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and children’s & YA literature. The award sum is 30,000 euros.

The nominees for the children’s category will be announced tomorrow and the fiction nominees on Thursday – the 9th and 10th of November respectively. The winners will be announced on November 30th.

Congratulations to the author for the nomination!

While publishers around the world keep complaining about the tough times they are experiencing, Ukrainians, as always, just get to the action – and make an offer for two books on HLA’s list!

Astrolabe, a beautiful Ukrainian publishing house, established in Lviv in 2000, has just acquired the rights for Before the Birds, a novel by Merja Mäki, recounting a family’s experiences during the evacuation journey from war-ridden Karelia, and Apogee, a sci-fi thriller by the EU Prize for Literature winner Piia Leino.

Astrolabe publishes literature of various genres, including fiction, poetry, books on philosophy, psychology, history, political science, law, economics, arts etc. The publisher also prides itself in contributing to Ukrainian culture by releasing new translations of medieval and early modern literature, such as The Song of Roland, the Divine Comedy by Dante, the first Ukrainian translations of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and an Old English epic Beowulf, among others. It is also the publisher of Piia Leino’s novel Heaven (2018).

Before the Birds (Gummerus, 2022) was an instant commercial and critical success in Finland, selling over 10,000 copies and becoming a #1 Bestselling Audiobook immediately after the publication. This is the first foreign rights sale for the novel.

In the winter of 1939, much of Finland’s eastern province Karelia was ceded to the Soviet Union, which becomes the setting for the novel. The main protagonist, a young woman called Alli, is suddenly forced to leave her Karelian home behind and embark on an onerous trek across Finland, in order to find a new home.

Not only must she now endure the strenuous evacuation, but also face an unexpected, life-changing responsibility, come to terms with the complicated relationship with her own mother, and somehow, continue to dream. 

“Mäki does such a vivid job leading the reader on the evacuees’ journey that one feels one is there oneself, freezing and feet covered in bloody blisters. […] The novel expands my understanding of what it means – and how it feels – to leave everything behind.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper

Apogee (S&S, 2021) is set in the year 2045, when the earth’s march toward ecological catastrophe has continued, and the environmental movement is radicalizing.

When the owner of a chain of clothing stores dies in a freak smart-device accident, the police do not initially suspect a crime. However, journalist Aaro Kangas is assigned to look into the potential radicalization of an ecological community at Oak Valley, and unwittingly ends up at the heart of an ambitious plan for annihilation. The investigation quickly turns incredibly personal – and incredibly dangerous. 

Foreign rights of Apogee have also been sold to Bulgaria and Hungary.

“A seamlessly written, fast-paced novel that combines crime mystery with dystopian visions of the near future.”
– Helsingin sanomat newspaper

Congratulations to both authors, and most importantly – SLAVA UKRAINI!

Happy news for one of the highlights on HLA’s list: novel Matara by Matias Riikonen has now been sold to Karl Rauch Verlag in Germany.

Karl Rauch Verlag is a literary house that prouds itself for publishing classics such as Don Quijote and The Little Prince in German, as well as modern fiction of high literary quality.

This is the fourth foreign rights deal for the novel, which has previously been sold France, Hungary and Denmark.

Matara is a story about boys’ games gone an inch too seriously. In the novel, boys of a summer camp spend their days in the realm they have built: the Republic of Matara. It has a law, a societal structure, plotting for power and bonds between citizens, as any real state. Under the guidance of his older brother, a young boy trains to be a scout. While spying, the pair come upon an enemy camp: war is at hand.

The novel has indeed been on a splendid success journey since its publication in autumn 2021: it was nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize, and won the Torch-Bearer Prize; the novel was also nominated for another prestigious award, the Runeberg Prize.

Don’t forget to check out the short interview with the author!

Congratulations to the author for this wonderful deal!

Wonderful news in the nonfiction department: Nostalgia – Theory and Practice by Antto Vihma received the State Award for Public Information, one of the most important accolades for nonfiction in Finland.

The jury stated about the work:

“In his book Nostalgia – Theory and Practice, Antto Vihma introduces to us modern nostalgia in the Western context. All the way through the history of this phenomenon, the author goes on to explore the connection between present day populism and nostalgia using four recent textbook examples: Brexit; the German AfD party; Donald Trump; as well as the Finnish “True Finns” party. (…)

Vihma doesn’t give in to straightforward and simplified solutions and helps the reader realise just how enchanting and appealing nostalgia is, and how it can be used as a fuel for achieving various goals. At the same time, the author, for example, offers an extraordinary explanation to the question that so many have pondered for years: why some of us are susceptible to conspiracy theories than others? (…)

The book encourages thoughts that stay with the reader for a long time after closing the book and become recognisable in different situations, proving that nostalgia is everywhere.”

The State Award for Public Information has been given out yearly since 1968. The number of recipients varies every year and nominations are primarily given to fiction and nonfiction books, radio and TV programmes and newspapers articles that had the most significant contribution to the information publication during the previous year. The amount of each award is 15,000 euros, except for the lifelong award (20,000 euros).

Congratulations to the author!