News

The wait is over: the English Penguin Modern Classic edition of Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio is out now, and we’re delighted!

Pirkko Saisio is the grand dame of the Finnish literary and dramatic scene and her Helsinki Trilogy consists of Lowest Common Denominator, Backlight, and The Red Book of Farewells. The Helsinki Trilogy is an autofictional trilogy that carries the reader through the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of a girl who wanted to be a boy and started calling herself “her” when she was eight years of age​, becoming both the narrator and the protagonist of her own story, object and subject of her storytelling.

The trilogy starts with Lowest Common Denominator (1998). In the beginning of the novel, the main character, “she”, is already a middle-aged mother. When her father dies, things get shoved o​ut of their place​. Her memories take her back to her childhood in the 1950s – to a story, which is also about to change. The following novels, The Backlight (2000) and The Red Book of Farewells (2003) deal with the author’s adolescence and coming-of-age, personally and artistically.

The strong themes of the trilogy – the relationship between an individual and the society, sexuality and being queer, and finding your voice – are told in a fragmentary, lyrical style, descriptive of Saisio. As the background, there is Helsinki, changing as the decades go by. The series is an established classic in Finland, and the Helsinki Trilogy has been acclaimed as a readers’ and critics’ favourite, with The Red Book of Farewells being crowned as the best Finnish work of the century.

​Saisio is currently the only living Finnish author whose works are included in the Penguin Modern Classics list. The trilogy is also out in German with Klett-Cotta, in French with Robert Laffont​, in Czech​ with Host, in D​utch with De Geu​s, and has already travelled to 11 foreign language territories.

The next instalment in the trilogy, Backlight, will be out with Penguin in March 2026.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publisher – don’t miss out on this title!

Droemer Knaur has pre-empted the German rights to the Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala in a significant three-book deal.

Show-stopping news from Germany: Droemer Knaur has pre-empted the German rights to the Silk Road North series by Anu Ojala, in a significant three-book deal, marking the second foreign language territory for the series. The series has been previously sold to De Fontein in the Netherlands.

Droemer Knaur needs no introductions in the publishing world, but let’s simply rejoice the fact: Ojala’s series will be published by one of the leading German publishing houses, with a list boasting an impressive variety of fiction and non-fiction. Ojala’s name will enjoy the company of such authors as Camilla Läckberg, Anders de la Motte, Ingar Johnsrud, Claire Mackintosh, Kimberly McCreight, S. K. Tremayne, M. W. Craven, Douglas Preston & Lyncoln Child, among others.

The Silk Road North is set in Tornio-Haparanda, on the Swedish-Finnish border; the twin city 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.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers, and don’t miss out on this series!

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!

North Audio Publishing has secured the Danish and Dutch digital rights to the Maja from Stormskär series by Anni Blomqvist in a double five-book deal.

The Maja from Stormskär series by Anni Blomqvist continues its journey out into the world: North Audio Publishing has acquired the Danish and Dutch rights, marking four foreign language territories for this series.

The Maja from Stormskär series follows Maja, a young girl from the Åland archipelago, for over 50 years. Her life is forever changed when Janne, a fisherman’s son, asks for her hand in marriage despite barely knowing her. Young Maja is set to start a new life on the remote Stormskerry and grows into a strong woman capable of dealing with both the good and the bad that life throws at her. A coming-of-age story, a portrayal of wild nature and hard work, and a love story beautifully weaved together, the series consists of five volumes.

The Maja from Stormskär series, originally published between 1968 and 1973, is an established Swedish-language modern classic. It rose to new fame in 2024, when it was adapted into a spectacularly successful movie with the same name which became the most watched movie of the year in the Nordics. The new edition, out with Schildts & Söderströms, was a hit and sold almost 10.000 copies in less than a year. The series has already been sold to Estonia, and the French rights were pre-empted by HarperCollins in a five-book deal.

Anni Blomqvist (1909–1990) was born on Vårdö, northeast of the Isle of Åland, where she lived her entire life. She debuted in 1966 and after the success with the books about Maja from Stormskär (1968-1973) Blomqvist wrote several critically acclaimed novels and an autobiographical work about life in the archipelago, past and present.

North Audio Publishing is a Denmark-based publishing house owned by Danish JP Politiken and Swedish Bokförlaget Polaris. They specialise in digital and audio books, and are the home of a multitude of successful series , bringing readers across multiple territories high-quality audio content.

Congratulations to the publishers!

Cappelen Damm has acquired the Norwegian rights to The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz.

The Mystery of Raspberry Hill by Eva Frantz continues its journey out into the world and is now travelling to Norway, where it will be published by Cappelen Damm, Norway’s largest publishing house.

The book follows Stina, a young girl who is sent to the sanatorium of Raspberry Hill to cure her illness. Raspberry Hill is in the middle of the healing countryside, where city dwellers with lung diseases end up. Many of the child patients treated there are from poor families – like Stina. The sanatorium feels like a castle to Stina. It is vast and full of long corridors and echoes. It is also a very lonely place, until one day Stina meets Ruben. The boy starts turning up when they should be sleeping, taking her on nightly expeditions to forbidden parts of the building – like the eastern wing, which has recently burned down.

Little by little Stina starts to realize that everything is not quite right in the sanatorium. Why isn’t her mother writing back to her? Why do the nurses seem so afraid? What really happened in the fire? And what is Ruben trying to warn her about?

The Mystery of Raspberry Hill is crime author Eva Frantz’s first children’s book – a suspenseful horror story for middle grade readers. It starts a series of stand-alone horror novels set in early 20th century that take their young readers on a journey back in time. The book was awarded the Runeberg Junior Prize in 2019, and has already travelled to eight language territories.

Warm congratulations to the author and the publisher!