A spellbinding story of long-gone species and human destinies.
Author: Iida Turpeinen
Finnish original: Elolliset
Publisher: S&S, 2023
Genre: literary fiction
Number of pages: 297 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample, English synopsis, German sample
Rights sold: Albania, Muza; Arabic, Al Arabi; Catalan, Cossetània; Croatia, Sonatine; Czech Republic, Paseka; Denmark, People’s; Dutch, Singel Publishers; world English, MacLehose & Little, Brown; Estonia, Tänapäev; French, Autrement (Flammarion); German, Fischer; Greece, Ikaros; Hungary, Polar; Italian, Neri Pozza; Japan, Kawade Shobo Shinsha; Korea, Open Books; Latvia, Janis Roze; Lithuania, Alma Littera; Norway, Gyldendal; Poland, Poznanskie; Portuguese (in Portugal), Porto Editora; Slovakia, Slovart; Slovenia, Mladinska; Spanish, Seix Barral (Planeta); Sweden, Albert Bonniers; Turkish, Timas; Vietnam, Kim Dong
Screen rights: available
In 1741, naturalist and theologist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins the Great Northern Expedition, as Captain Vitus Bering and his crew scout out a sea route from Asia to America. Although they never reach the American mainland, they make a unique discovery: the Steller’s sea cow.
In 1859, Hampus Furuhjelm, the Finnish governor of the Russian territory of Alaska, sends his men to seek the skeleton of this massive marine mammal, rumored to have vanished a hundred years before.
In 1952, John Grönvall, a restorer at what is now the Finnish Museum of Natural History, is assigned the task of refurbishing the skeleton of the Steller’s sea cow, which by now is extinct.
Beasts of the Sea is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries. Approaching natural diversity through individual destinies, it’s a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed.
The novel is the winner of the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize. Its international breakthrough has been acknowledged for example by the Bookseller.
Praise for the book:
Sebastian Guggolz, acquiring editor at S. Fischer Verlag,
“What a wonderful novel! I love the idea of telling the story of the expeditions in different times, and of the skeleton of Steller’s Sea cow holding all that together, connecting the centuries. I also loved the way Iida tells her story: it is so clever to do it with different individuals, linked to the Stellar’s sea cow, and focusing on female characters who are part or background. Iida has a beautiful style of writing, and the novel is also telling many things about science, in a very welcoming way for readers.”
Katharina Bielenberg, the Publisher of MacLehose Press (Quercus)
“Iida Turpeinen has produced an impeccably researched voyage of discovery embedded in the natural world, with terrific characters, and an elegiac meditation on human stupidity. It deals with such universal themes, and in such a sustained, vivid, poetic way; you could press it into the hands of any reader”
Juliette Lambron, literary director of Autrement (Flammarion)
“From the very first pages of your novel, I have been swept away by Elolliset [the original Finnish title of Beasts of the Sea] and its captivating epic novel dimension: reading your novel is like embarking on an adventure, a fascinating journey through time and places. […] The epic scope is perfectly interwoven with scientific observations and details that nourish the narrative: your novel achieves the feat of combining an adventure dimension with the history of sciences, of discoveries and explorations in a very compulsive way. […] I am very impressed and passionate about your deftly mastered novel and its precise, rhythmic and evocative writing that enlightens our human nature and our relationship to our environment, to nature and to the living beings.”
Johanna Haegerström, acquiring editor at Alfred Bonniers
“Beasts of the Sea is an incredibly fascinating, beautiful and, in fact, also very sad – as it discusses extinction – historical novel. It describes the hunger for science and the miracles of nature in a way that made me immediately amazed and curious. Writing in crystal clear and factual literary style, Turpeinen manages in very few and quick draws make her characters so deep that you get close to them. […] I suspect this is the biggest literary break-through in Finland in years.”
Christel Hvalsøe Brinkløv, senior acquiring editor of People’s Press
“Beasts of the Sea is a wonderful book – poetical, raw, timely and no doubt the first of many great books to come from Iida Turpeinen”
Inés Planells, acquiring editor at Planeta International
Elolliset [the original Finnish title of Beasts of the Sea] like a powerful tide, swept me off to sea from the first page. It’s a fantastically imagined novel—as sophisticated as it is engaging—that manages to blend historical events, exploring matters of moral and philosophical significance like the relationship of humans to nature, with an epic voyage of discovery. Needless to say, we’re beyond excited to publish Iida Turpeinen.
Michel de Waart (Arbeiderspers) at Singel Uitgevers, the Dutch publisher of Beasts of the Sea together with De Geus
“Both Jacoba [Casier, De Geus] and I were impressed. I read the sample over the weekend and was immediately drawn into this powerful, multilayered story about the human urge to control, study and collect nature, destroying it in the process. It reminded me of books by Judith Schalansky and Daniel Kehlmann’s book on Humboldt. 19th century preciseness combined with deep aesthetic sensitivity and epic narration, with the urgency of the current climate crisis resonating between the lines”.
Tauno Vahter, the publisher of Tänäpäev
“Beasts of the Sea is an adventurous novel about mankind and nature, one that gives food for thought. The theme running through this relatively small book is the inevitable changing of the world, which is at times tragic, but at times, strangely, also tragicomic. The novel will attract the readers of Daniel Kehlmann’s Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World) and Richard Powers’ Overstory.”
Paulina Surniak, rights manager at Wydawnictwo Poznańskie
“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.”
Lene Sandvold Evensen , acquiring editor at Gyldendal
“Iida Turpeinen elegantly and entertainingly brings life to the diverse characters of this book […]. The descriptions of the expedition to Alaska is shockingly captivating: […] This part of the book so well captures the transition of the 18thcentury, when science and knowledge took over from superstition, omens and beliefs. “What captured me the most is the book’s wonderful ability to entertainingly and so smartly say something about the history of science, of enlightenment. The costs of this, for animals, people and nature. And also the enormous forces of nature (weather, climate, dangerous species etc.) that can destroy man in only a second. And yet this need for domestication, for control, for understanding seems untamable in humans. There are so many fascinating aspects of this novel – and the idea of putting the sea cow at the center of it all is not only interesting and smart, it is fun!
“Iida Turpeinen has written an important European novel. […] Turpeinen’s debut novel, Beasts of the Sea, which focuses on a single sea cow and individuals linked to it over a span of three centuries, makes the ecological ruptures and freefall of the entire world a palpable experience. […] This science-fueled book will move you and have you holding your breath.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
About the author:
Iida Turpeinen