Wonderful news for Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen: this world-class debut, that has already travelled to 28 foreign language territories, has been crowned as The Bookseller’s Fiction Book of the Month in a feature penned by Lauren Brown.

The feature states that Beasts of the Sea is a “literary phenomenon in its home country of Finland, with the first print run selling out within a week of publication”.
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. Steller’s sea cow, a sirenian lost to extinction centuries ago, is revived on the pages and is the red thread that ties together the individual fates of a group of people throughout the centuries. The novel is the winner of the Book Beat Newcomer Award, The Thank You for the Book Award, Finland’s booksellers’ prize, the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, the Storytel award. Beasts of the Sea was also a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize.

In Finland, Beasts of the Sea is published by Kustantamo S&S, part of Schildts & Söderströms. Loved by readers and critics alike, Beasts of the Sea has also been crowned the Best Book of the Century in a Readers’ Selection list published by the largest Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat. The foreign editions are out with prominent international publishers, including Fischer in Germany, Flammarion in France, Neri Pozza in Italy, and De Geus in the Netherlands. The English edition will be out with Little, Brown in the US and with MacLehose Press in the UK after the summer.
Iida Turpeinen (b. 1987) is a Helsinki-based literary scholar currently writing a dissertation on the intersection of the natural sciences and literature. As an author, she is intrigued by the literary potentials of scientific research and by the offbeat anecdotes and meanderings from the history of science.
Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!