News

Pearl by Kari Hotakainen has been sold to Hungary, where it will be published by Polar.

Pearl by Kari Hotakainen has begun its journey out into the world, as Polar has acquired the Hungarian rights.

In Pearl, a childless couple’s foraging trip takes an unexpected turn when they run into a confused elderly woman in the woods. From there, everyone’s life becomes bumpier and starts taking unexpected turns. Pearl is a fast-paced and humorous story that approaches tragic things with a warm, moving touch and asks a difficult question: If one loses control of one’s memories and life, what is there left to hold on to? 

Hotakainen, one of the most accomplished and respected Finnish authors, takes the subjects of memory disease, identity and self, and involuntary childlessness and gives them his trademark, humorous and tragi-comic treatment. The publisher took an unprecedented first print run of 35 000 copies and the book has sold close to 10 000 copies in its first weeks out.

Kari Hotakainen has been awarded the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, the Prix du Courrier International and the Prix Coup de Coeur, amongst others. His first nonfiction book, The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) is the best-selling Finnish nonfiction work of all time. Hotakainen’s works have sold over 700 000 copies in Finland. 

Polar is a Hungarian publishing house specialised in Nordic literature. It is the Hungarian home of, among others, Iida Turpeinen‘s Beasts of the Sea, Antti Hurskainen‘s A Wooden Prayer, and Laura Lindstedt and Sinikka Vuola‘s 101 Ways To Kill Your Husband.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Norstedts has pre-empted the Swedish rights to Mirabilis by Anni Kytömäki. This is the second pre-empt in two days for this hot title, already a sensation in Finland.

Mirabilis by Anni Kytömäki has quickly become the hot book of autumn 2024 and has been turning heads at the Frankfurt fair: Norstedts has pre-empted the Swedish rights, marking the second pre-empt in two days for this title, which is already a sensation in Finland, where it sold over 7.000 copies in its first weeks.

Mirabilis is a great novel of journeys and adventure following two generations of outcast women, both of whom share a deep bond with nature. Mirabilis starts out at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, and carries the reader all the way to the 1930s in a journey that stretches from Finland to the Amur, and still further on. Riikka is a young woman of unusual strength, who makes the brave decision of leaving for the Amur on a colonial expedition, and becomes fascinated with a tiger in a way that will mark her forever. Along the way she gives birth to a set of twins, one of whom is a girl, Ella. Unconventional like her mother, and determined to live life on her own terms, Ella becomes an acrobat and brushes with death one too many times. As a result, Ella developed a strong connection to a recently extinct bird, and a strong interest in the scientific discourse around extinction. These ingredients, along with unanswered questions from the past, result in a epic narrative that draws readers in, and that one never wishes to leave.

Anni Kytömäki is one of Finland’s strongest and most-loved contemporary voices. She won the Finlandia Prize in 2020 with Margarita, which sold about 90.000 copies in Finland alone.

Norstedts is one of Sweden’s largest and most established publishers, whose list includes world-class authors like Annie Ernaux, Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood, and Colm Tóibín.

In Finland, Mirabilis is published by Gummerus.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

Amazing news for our illustrators: Linda Bondestam, Marika Maijala, Sanna Mander and Sanna Pelliccioni are among the nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is awarded on a yearly basis to a person or organization for their contribution to children’s and YA literature. The award is administered by the Swedish Arts Council, in memory of world-famous Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.

Linda Bondestam is one of the best-known Nordic illustrators. She has been a candidate for the Finlandia Junior and Astrid Lindgren Prizes as well as the Nordic Council’s Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature. HLA represents her The Fantastickle Friend, penned by Alexandra Salmela.

Marika Maijala illustrated Million Billion Santa Clauses, which became a hit upon its release and has been sold to 18 language territories, and won the Most Beautiful Book of the Year prize in 2014.

Sanna Mander is the author and illustrator of My Teeny-Tiny Witch, and The Lost Key, and has illustrated The Secret Life of Farts and The Spectacular Book of Princesses. My Teeny Tiny Witch received an honorary mention for the Rudolf Koivu Prize in 2023, and The Secret Life of Farts was an international success, sold to eight territories.

Sanna Pelliccioni is an established Finnish illustrator, who was awarded the Plaque Award at the Bratislava Biennale earlier this year for her illustrations of Sent Across The Sea. Sent Across the Sea is part of a trilogy by Eppu Nuotio & Sanna Pelliccioni presenting historical events through the eyes of children.

Warm congratulations to all four, and fingers crossed!

Mirabilis by Anni Kytömäki has been pre-empted by People’s in Denmark. Mirabilis is already a sensation in the making on the domestic market, where it sold 7000 copies in just a couple of weeks.

Mirabilis by Anni Kytömäki is in the spotlight at the Frankfurt fair: People’s has pre-empted the Danish rights to the title, already a sensation in Finland where it sold 7.000 copies in its first weeks.

Mirabilis is a great novel of journeys and adventure following two generations of outcast women, both of whom share a deep bond with nature. Mirabilis starts out at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, and carries the reader all the way to the 1930s in a journey that stretches from Finland to the Amur, and still further on. Riikka is a young woman of unusual strength, who makes the brave decision of leaving for the Amur on a colonial expedition, and becomes fascinated with a tiger in a way that will mark her forever. Along the way she gives birth to a set of twins, one of whom is a girl, Ella. Unconventional like her mother, and determined to live life on her own terms, Ella becomes an acrobat and brushes with death one too many times. As a result, Ella developed a strong connection to a recently extinct bird, and a strong interest in the scientific discourse around extinction. These ingredients, along with unanswered questions from the past, result in a epic narrative that draws readers in, and that one never wishes to leave.

Anni Kytömäki is one of Finland’s strongest and most-loved contemporary voices. She won the Finlandia Prize in 2020 with Margarita, which sold about 90.000 copies in Finland alone.

People’s is a mid-sized Danish publishing house with an extensive fiction list including authors like Delphine de Vigan, David Mitchell and Magda Szabo. They are also the Danish home of Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen, slated for 2025, and the Cotton Mill Trilogy by Ann-Christin Antell.

People’s CEO Line Miller has stated:

“Christel [Brinkløv] and I are both completely blown away 
By the scope, ambition and scale of MIRABILIS. What a feat! The drive of the story, the depth of the characterizations, the sheer height of the idea – what a marvel!”

In Finland, Mirabilis is published by Gummerus.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

National Geographic launches a monumental documentary about Endurance, the legendary ship on which Ernest Shackleton sailed to Antarctica, and the wreck of which was found by Endurance22, with author Jukka Tuhkuri as a member of the expedition.

The ship Endurance has long been shrouded in myths and legends: led by Ernest Shackleton, this Antarctic expedition became the second most famous shipwreck in history after the Titanic, and its fate and exact location remained a mystery for over 100 years. In 2022 the Endurance22 expedition, consisting of an international team of researchers including professor Jukka Tuhkuri, traveled to Antarctica with the goal of finding Endurance, and succeeded.

This is the premise and the subject of Jukka Tuhkuri‘s book Endurance: One Myth, Two Journeys and The Weight of Ice, and it is also the premise of Endurance, the monumental documentary launched by National Geographic on October 14th. The documentary, which has been featured on the BBC, The Guardian and the Telegraph, gives ample space to the figure of Shackleton and the original Endurance expedition, so readers who are thirsty for answers and modern-day adventure will want to pick up Tuhkuri’s book even more after this.

At the dawn of 1910s, all the major conquests in the name of science and exploration seemed to have been accomplished, but traversing Antarctica from shore to shore was still up for grabs, and Ernest Shackleton wasn’t going to waste his time watching someone else do it. 

This was the beginning of one of the most legendary expeditions of all times, entwined in tales and myths that have inspired numbers of books, films, and other works of art ever since. At the same time, hardly any evidence or real knowledge has been gathered about the reasons behind the sinking of Endurance, and only very few have reached even the proximity of history’s second most famous shipwreck.  

In 2022, members of the international Endurance22 expedition team boarded an ice-breaking research ship built in Finland, with the mission to locate Endurance lying more than 3000 m deep beneath the surface of Weddell Sea – and succeeded. 

In his book, ice researcher Jukka Tuhkuri, retells the Shackleton myth in a new light. In addition to the historical events leading to the original expedition, as well as his own experiences on the Antarctic journey, Tuhkuri sheds light on the work of polar researchers a hundred years ago and now. While scientists on Endurance tried to understand what sea ice is and how it moves, modern researchers consider how climate change is affecting it, and what it means to sea travels and our future.

Drawing on mythical past and state-of-the-art research on climate change, Endurance: One Myth, Two Journeys and the Weight of Ice is set to become the hot non-fiction book of autumn 2024. In Finland, the book is published by Siltala.