News

Jukka Tuhkuri, the author of the captivating and moving narrative non-fiction book Icebound: The Search for Endurance and the Real Reason It Sank , has been in the spotlight of international press this week for his ground-breaking new study proving the real reasons behind the sinking of the legendary ship Endurance.

Contrary to the opinion that has prevailed among experts and general public alike for over a century, Tuhkuri’s study contends that it was the ship itself, not the ice, that led to its demise and eventual sinking. Released on Monday in the journal Polar Record, the new study has attracted wide international attention, with NY Times, CNN, Der Spiegel, among others, reporting on the story.

A polar explorer himself, Tuhkuri was one of 15 scientists who were invited to join the Endurance22 mission, the team that discovered the wreck in 2022. The nonfiction book Icebound: The Search for Endurance and the Real Reason It Sank published in Finland in 2024, focuses on this journey. In addition to that, Tuhkuri retells the Shackleton myth in a new light, and dedicates an entire chapter to exploring Shackleton’s diaries and the real reasons behind Endurance’s sinking.

The book has been warmly received in Finland, with critics praising Tuhkuri’s storytelling, dedication to his subject, and the moving narrative.

“When writing about his own experiences, Tuhkuri produces highly flowing text in which emotions are palpable. Ice, wind, and especially the penguins are described enchantingly. An avid reader, Tuhkuri effortlessly drops references to world literary classics: Moby Dick, the old sailor, Kipling and Dickens find their natural place; and even this Finnish author cannot avoid mentioning Moominpappa when writing about sea”, critic Kimmo Ylönen writes in the Kulttuuritoimutus magazine.

An extensive English sample and synopsis are free upon request, and foreign rights of the book are still available in many territories.

We’re so very happy: author Merja Mäki has received the Pohjalainen Award for her novel Wept Another, the second set in wartime Karelia.

Author Merja Mäki has received the Pohjalainen Award for her novel Wept Another, the second set in wartime Karelia, after the successful Before the Birds. Both titles are published by Gummerus in Finland.

The Pohjalainen Award is given every other year by the Ilkka Pohjalainen newspaper, in collaboration with the Regional Councils of South Ostrobothnia and Ostrobothnia, to the best literary work with connections to the region. The jury have given Wept Another an additional special mention for its beautiful language and the chair of the jury has stated that with Wept Another Merja Mäki “has risen to join the ranks of the great Finnish storytellers”.

Wept Another follows Larja, a young woman from Eastern Karelia. It is 1942, and peace has momentarily descended on this bit of territory recently reclaimed from the Soviets by Finnish troops. Larja has been studying at a teacher training camp and upon her return to her home village she has to come to terms with the fact that nothing is as it was. As Larja cares for her ailing grandmother, she listens to the messages the trees are sending her on the northern winds and discovers that she has the gift of wailing. After a Finnish man steps into her life, Larja finds herself again torn between two different worlds. Wept Another is the story of a young woman who has grown up between two cultures on the border of two countries. It is a tale of roots and the ties that bind us, but above all, of the choices that you must make in life.

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

He Who Saw The Deep by Selja Ahava is travelling to Denmark, where it will be published by Jensen & Dalgaard, marking the second foreign deal for this title.

Selja Ahava‘s He Who Saw The Deep is on a roll: Jensen & Dalgaard has secured the Danish rights to the title, which has already travelled to Poland.

He Who Saw The Deep is an exploration of two themes central to the human experience: love and mortality. The narrator is Liisa, a middle-aged woman in whose family people tend to die young and who has found love with her husband Henrik later in life.

As Liisa’s only living relative falls deathly ill and Henrik is away, Liisa copes with her fear by writing stories that give her a chance to explore the idea of mortality and the – impossible – pursuit of immortality. The stories follow situations where the line between life and death, the dead and the living, is walked, observed, and redrawn. The structure, in which fragments of myths, stories, and other media are weaved together, results in a modern rhapsody that nods at ancient myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh, that also gives the book its title.

Selja Ahava has established herself as a prominent literary voice in the Finnish scene: her Things That Fall From The Sky won the EU Literature Prize and has been sold to 28 territories, and her production is read with enthusiasm in Finland, where her work are published by Gummerus.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!

Mark your calendars if you’re attending the Gothenburg Book Fair this week – To My Brother author E.L. Karhu is performing there!

Author E.L. Karhu – whose name you’ll recognize for her novel To My Brother – will be performing at the Gothenburg Book Fair, participating in panels and conversations with other authors and dramaturges from Thursday to Sunday. The schedule is as follows:

Thursday 12:30-13:20, panel Fearless and vulnerable: women’s perspective in playwriting (Dramascenen)
Should we need a specifically female perspective in dramaturgy? How can we move towards a more equal society? The discussion is initiated by prominent Estonian playwright Piret Jaaks, in conversation with playwrights from neighbouring countries. The panel is in English.

Fri 11-11:45 seminar Finnish feminisms and queer spaces (Room R22 + 23)
How do today’s dramaturgs reflect on and reshape the Finnish feminisms and the quuer perspective on stage? Guided by professor emerita and queer activist Tiina Rosenberg, this seminar invites to a conversation between four bold voices in the Finnish theatre scene: Leea Klemola, whose shameless characters defy norms; E.L. Karhu, who explores caring and alliance building; Saara Turunen, and Arni Rajamäki. A thought-provoking conversation about stage art, politics, and identity. The panel is in English.

Sat 10-11:30 Antigones arv | Antigone’s Inheritance (Room G4)
Staging of Athena Farrokhzad’s play Antigone’s Inheritance directed by Saga Gärde, followed by a conversation with other playwrights whose work has drawn from myths. E.L. Karhu contributes with her experience of writing a play about the myth of Medea. The event is in Swedish and English.

Sat 15:30-15.50 The Drama of Care (Dramascenen)
Playwrights Johanna Emanuelsson and E. L. Karhu discuss their new plays, A Swedish Crime (“Ett svenskt brott”) and Marian Blessing escapes from a facility (“Marian Blessing karkaa laitoksesta”) in which they explore the shortcomings of care and how this crisis has influenced their most recent work. Moderated by Kristina Hagström-Ståhl. The discussion is in English.

Sun 11:00-11:20 True Crime on Stage (Dramascenen)
How does the true crime genre work on the stage? Can stories of real-life violence and crime be transformed into meaningful theatre, and what are the risks of sensationalism or exploitation? A discussion with two playwrights exploring this territory: Kristian Hallberg and E. L. Karhu. Karhu’s play, Marian Blessing flyr från en anstalt, is based on a true story of a vengeful and violent elderly woman. What can be found in the darkness of these stories, and what does it reveal about our society? The playwrights share their strategies and ethical considerations in conversation with Kristina Hagström-Ståhl. The event is in English.

E.L. Karhu debuted as novelist with To My Brother. The book follows a greedy, lonely girl who watches her beautiful, popular brother atop the sensual bodies of his girlfriend candidates. If someone were to look at the girl, they might see a loser who binges on sweets, devours soap operas, and trails her brother like a shadow. Her intense narration forces one to stare, to look more closely. Is this only strange, or is there, actually, something that you can relate to? To My Brother is filled with dark humour, the oddities of an out-grown sibling relationship, of many-facets lust, and social and sexual hierarchies. It is striking, deep, entertaining, funny, and tragic at the same time, and it certainly is a novel unlike anything else you have read.

Don’t miss out on these events!

Wonderful news: The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen has been nominated for the Mirrormere Prize, awarded yearly by the Finnish Tolkien Society.

The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen continues to make waves and enchant the literary scene: the book has been nominated for the Mirrormere Prize, a yearly prize awarded by the Finnish Tolkien Society to the best book with fantastical elements published in the previous year, picked from a selection of five nominees. The winner will be announced in late October, during the Helsinki Book Fair.

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. In Finland, the book is published by Gummerus, and its foreign rights have already been sold for Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, and Slovak.

Linnea Kuuluvainen (b. 1996) is a Turku-based author with a background in literature and creative writing studies. Her prose is distinguishable for its magical realism and lyrical depth.

Warm congratulations to the author, the publisher, and all nominees – and fingers crossed!