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Author Linnea Kuuluvainen represented Finland at the European Festival of the First Novel in Kiel, Germany with her glowing debut The Thick of the Forest.

The festival, hosted by the Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, gathers debutant novelists and their editors and agents from all over Europe to present their novel, share their writing experiences, and engage in conversations with each other. The highlight of the program was a reading gala at the Literaturhaus, where authors read an excerpt of their novel in its original language followed by a reading in German translation of the same piece. For the

This year, thirteen European countries were represented: Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

The Thick of the Forest is set in a near future where nature has started fighting back against human exploitation, destroying the world as we know it. Mixing elements from Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in the unique setting of a Finnish forest capable of utter destruction, The Thick of the Forest is an entrancing and linguistically captivating first novel about a forest that haunts people and two women, Edla and Ingrid, whose stories intersect.

The result is a rich telling of the relationship between mankind and nature, and of how the lines dividing them become increasingly blurry in the depth of the forest. In Finland, the book is published by Gummerus, and its foreign rights have already been sold to Bulgaria, Croatia, and Estonia.

Linnea Kuuluvainen (b. 1996) is an author with a background in literature and creative writing studies. The Thick of the Forest is her debut novel. In honour of her attendance at the festival, a German and French translation sample are now available.

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

The Path of Eternal Winter by Niilo Sevänen has been nominated for the Tähtifantasia Award for the best fantasy work published in the previous year.

The Path of Eternal Winter by Niilo Sevänen continues to draw attention and accolades: the first instalment in the Eternal Winter series is now nominated for the Tähtifantasia Award for the best fantasy work published in the previous year.

The Tähtifantasia Award has been awarded since 2007 on a yearly basis by the Helsinki Science Fiction Organization to the best work of fantasy published the previous year, and the winner is picked from a shortlist, that this year also includes Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk with the Finnish edition of her Anna in the Tombs of the World, and the Finnish edition of Robin Hobb‘s The Liveship Traders: Ship of Magic. Previous winners of the prize are Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and multiple instalments in The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Path of Eternal Winter has been chosen as a “novel set in the Byzantine golden age that combines in a suitable ratio history, adventure, European mythology and fast-paced action scenes. The narration which takes the story to epic levels, is quality fantasy entertainment”.

The Eternal Winter series mixes an extensive background research on real historical events and Finnish folklore and an entertaining prose resulting in a page-turning read that wraps together a well-structured plot, an entertaining style and great marketing potential. The German rights were pre-empted by Bastei-Lübbe in a three-book deal last summer, and the series is published in Finland by Gummerus.

In The Path of Eternal Winter (Eternal Winter #1) it is the year 1007, it has been winter for seven years and we follow Orpheus, a lute player who is fond of taverns and drinking rather than responsibilities and hardships, but he is left with no choice but to take on custody for little Halla, his niece, who is being chased by mercenaries. The pair embark on a perilous escape, which results in an even more dangerous journey towards a destroyed Rome.

This is Niilo Sevänen‘s debut as novelist, but the public may recognise his name as the frontman of the melodic death metal band Insomnium. As the subject matter of Eternal Winter is also the theme of Insomnium‘s most successful album, the book has been turning heads and gathering international attention since the news of its publication reached the Insomnium fandom, which counts over 80.000 followers worldwide, and is currently on tour in Europe.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!

We’ll Just Ride Past by Ellen Strömberg continues to succeed: this wonderful YA title is set to be adapted for the theatre, with its opening night due in January 2026 at the Svenska Teatern in Turku.

We’ll Just Ride Past follows Manda and Malin, a duo of best friends in ninth grade. They are nicknamed The Bicycles as they cycle everywhere looking for fun and something to do in a small town where nothing ever happens. One day Malin develops a crush on a guy working at the local pizzeria, and a series on events – both fun and not so fun – begins to unfold. We’ll Just Ride Past is an accurate portrayal of a moment in life where it’s perfectly normal to change style and music taste every week and the world awaits. In Finland, the title it is published by S&S.

We’ll Just Ride Past won the August Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in Sweden, in 2022 and its rights has already been sold for Italian, Korean, Slovenian, Polish, and Catalan.

Ellen Strömberg is a Swedish-speaking Finnish author whose production ranges from picture books to novels. We’ll Just Ride Past was a domestic and international success and her latest YA novel No Beginning No End has been received with warm praise. It is the story of Benjamin, a shy teenage boy dealing with his mother’s death, as he grows close with Tristan, a mysterious boy.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and fingers crossed!

De Fontein has acquired the Dutch rights to The Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala, marking the first foreign language area for the series.

The Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala has started its journey out into the world with a bang: De Fontein has acquired the Dutch rights to the series in a three-book deal.

Twin city Tornio-Haparanda, on the Swedish-Finnish border, has been plagued by a crime wave which keeps claiming new victims. Sergeant Ronja Jentzch investigates murders that lead to the trail of a dangerous synthetic drug. While police are fighting a helpless battle, unexpected connections to higher instances begin to come to daylight.  As the frozen sea brings deadly substances over to seemingly calm and safe communities, cases of inhumane cruelty, despair-driven crimes, and international meddling become a daily challenge for Jentzsch and her team. Revered by readers, the series brings to light the long-silenced truth about the rise of international drug crime in northern Finland.

Anu Ojala (b.1972) is an author and lawyer living in Rovaniemi in the Finnish Lapland who knows the background of the Arctic drug war well. She has worked in a law firm and at the University of Lapland, and has previously written novels for young readers. Her Silk Road North series consists of three volumes so far: The Silk Road North, Death Knell, and The Skynet.

De Fontein boasts a wide selection of crime titles and is the Dutch publisher of, among others, Peter James, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, and Ida Axelsson & Åsa Bonelli. The acquiring editor at De Fontein Claudia van der Werf admitted to having a soft spot for Finland and Arctic landscapes, and has stated: “The combination of the setting that Ojala chose, combined with the particularly exciting story development and the fascinating characters in the book, [will] make this a nice addition to our list.”

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

Forest Field Notes by Venho & Pelliccioni continues to enchant Spain: the book will be a part of the Europa Illustra exhibition in Madrid next May.

Forest Field Notes by Johanna Venho & Sanna Pelliccioni (ill.) is out in Spanish in a beautiful edition by Gato Sueco, and will be featured in an upcoming exhibition in Madrid, Europa Ilustra, starting from May 9th, in which Pelliccioni will be representing Finland.

Forest Field Notes is a tender, magical story of the forest. It pays tribute to the imagination that can be awakened by nature. With Johanna Venho‘s poetic words and Sanna Pelliccioni‘s delicate illustrations, the book gently addresses the importance nearby nature has for children.

Spruce is a little girl who loves spending time in the forest, and is very observant: she sees trees, plants, flowers, but she has also seen elves, forest trolls, and fawns. All of her sightings and her experiences in the woods are collected in her field notebook.

One day she learns that her forest has been zoned, and will be cut down. Spruce decides to fight back, and starts tying notes to trees in protest. Suddenly, she finds an ally in a mysterious boy with green eyes and twigs in his hair. Who is the boy? And can they save the forest together?

In Finland, Forest Field Notes is published by Teos, and its foreign rights have already been sold in Oceania and Greece, as well as for World Spanish.

Forest Field Notes is followed by a second stand-alone book set in the same fictional universe, Travel Field Notes, in which Spruce and her family travel to Lapland by train to try and cheer up her mother, who has lost her job and slipped into depression. As she struggles and faces her difficulties, a hopeful ending is eventually in the cards, and Spruce documents everything in her field notebook, maintaining the same beautiful style of Forest Field Notes.

Don’t miss out on these titles!