Fantastic news for our author Marja Kyllönen: she has been awarded the Distinguished Artist Award by the Kalevala Society Foundation. The jury have motivated their choice as follows:
The Undeparted by Marja Kyllönen
“Marja Kyllönen’s (b. 1975) third novel, The Undeparted (Teos 2022), is a kind of generational novel about the transgenerational effects of individual actions and emotions. The most significant and distinctive element of Kyllönen’s narrative is the language she has developed. She combines images, words and parables from folklore, magic, dialects, Kalevala and Kanteletar into her language. When existing words are not enough, she develops new ones that fit naturally into the narrative. Kyllönen builds a language that has never been seen before in fiction. The Undeparted is a valuable addition to the union of Finnish folklore and fiction. Themes familiar from folklore are implanted in the world of contemporary readers, mainly in a style that can be described as magical-lyrical. It is a feat that is unlikely to be matched by anyone else.”
Anni Kytömäki’s Margarita came third among the most loved winners of the prize.
The English edition of Ice is published by Sort of Books.
Readers have voted Ulla-Lena Lundberg’sIce (2012) to their favourite of all Finlandia Prize winners. There were all together 22,000 votes casted. The vote is the first of its kind: this year marks the 40th anniversary of the prize.
Ice is a story about a priest and his family who arrive to a small island community in Åland right after the war, in 1946. The novel paints a picture of the local people, their relationships and the surrounding nature with the strikes of a master storyteller, and it has been described one that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
The novel is also the most bestselling Finlandia Prize winner with its well over 100,000 sold copies. The original Swedish edition is published by Schildts & Söderströms, and the Finnish translation by Teos.
Ulla-Lena Lundberg commented on the choice of the readers by saying,
Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Photo: Cata Portin)
“I am extremely happy for this recognition. At the same time I feel that all the Finlandia Prize winners would have been worthy of it: there are a lot of great books published in Finland, and putting them in order is difficult. I am very touched that the Finnish readers have taken a Finland Swedish novel to their hearts.”
The rights have been sold to the following areas: Bulgaria, Izida Croatia, Hena com Denmark, Gyldendal English, Sort of Books Estonia, Eesti Raamat Finland, Teos Germany, Mare Hungary, Széphalon Könyvmuhely Norway, Heinesen Poland, Marpress Sweden, Albert Bonnier
Lundberg’s latest novel Light and Flame(2022) has been received with rave reviews.
The second of the readers’ favourites was Sofi Oksanen’s Purge (2008), and Anni Kytömäki’sMargarita (2020) took the third place.
The internationally most successful Finnish debut ever, Iida Turpeinen’s Beasts of the Sea, has been nominated for the prestigious Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize.
Iida Turpeinen and the skeleton of Steller’s sea cow (Photo: Susanna Kekkonen)
The ten nominees for Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize were announced today, the last day of the Helsinki book fair. Among the candidates, there are six novels, three books of poetry and a collection of essays.
Antti Majander, a literary critic at the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper and a member of the jury, writes:
“Turpeinen whittles a base of clearly vast background information into precision strikes depicting her characters’ most telling moments. In addition to information, Beasts of the Sea offers the art of leaving out, which by and large informs the debut author’s voice.”
Beasts of the Sea has written Finnish literary history already now on the international arena, as its rights have been quickly sold to 12 areas, with aggressive pre-empts and in heated auctions. Currently, the rights have been sold to these areas:
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.
Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize has been given to the best Finnish debut yearly since 1995. Before, between 1964 and 1994, the best debut award was named after J. H. Erkko, a 19th century Finnish poet and the brother to the founder and editor in chief of Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the biggest daily in Finland.
The best Finnish debut of 2023 will be announced on the 16th of November.
Today, Autrement (of the publishing group Flammarion) came out as the winner in the auction for the world French rights.
Juliette Lambron, the literary director of Autrement, wrote in her letter to the author:
“From the very first pages of your novel, I have been swept away by Elolliset 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.”
Iida Turpeinen (Photo: Susanna Kekkonen)
The deal was done by our splendid co-agent Anna Lindblom from the Nordik Agency.
Autrement’s beautiful publishing list includes authors such as Joseph Conrad, Jens Liljestrand, Julia Phillips or Kjell Westö. It is also well-known for its “Atlases” collection that endeavors to chart territories in new and enlightening ways, so as to broaden our horizons and our knowledge of the world.
The hottest Finnish title of this year, Iida Turpeinen’s debut Beasts of the Sea, has its new English home with the MacLehose Press in the UK and Little, Brown Company in the US.
During the past few weeks and especially at the Frankfurt book fair, Beasts of the Sea has gotten a tremendous amount of attention, which has manifested in seven prior pre-emptive deals (Germany, Fischer; Spanish, Seix Barral; Italy, Neri Pozza; the Netherlands, Singel; Sweden, Albert Bonnier; Norway, Gyldendal; Denmark, People’s). Yesterday, Autrement (Flammarion) came out as the winner in the auction for the world French rights. Before, the rights have been sold to Estonian Tänapäev and Hungarian Polar.
For the world English rights, there was an extraordinary amount of offers pouring in, as the deadline for first offers was approaching. The novel was, however, taken off the table by the strong joint pre-emptive offer by MacLehose Press and Little, Brown Company.
“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”, stated Katharina Bielenberg, the Publisher of MacLehose Press (Quercus).
“Little, Brown is thrilled to be joining our colleagues at MacLehose Press to publish in the English language this gorgeously written, at once intimate and sweeping novel by a hugely talented debut author,” said Asya Muchnik, VP and Executive Editor at Little, Brown Company.
Iida Turpeinen (Photo: Susanna Kekkonen)
The author Iida Turpeinen says: “I am absolutely delighted that Beasts of the Sea will soon be made available for the English-speaking readers, too. The book could not have found a better home, and I am thrilled and honoured to be able to collaborate with such prestigeous publishing houses as MacLehose Press and Little, Brown Company.”
MacLehose Press was founded in 2008 by Christopher MacLehose. It has a very strong list of translated quality fiction, including Karin Smirnoff, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Roberto Saviano, Stieg Larsson and Kjell Westö.
Little, Brown and Company was founded in 1837 by by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. It is the publisher of many bestselling authors, including Donna Tartt, Madeline Miller, Kate Atkinson, David Foster Wallace and Malcolm Gladwell.
