News

A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large by Sofia Chanfreau and Amanda Chanfreau (ill.) has been sold to Croatia and Latvia, where it will be published by Ibis Grafika and Janis Roze respectively. This marks 16 language territories for the title.

A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large by Sofia Chanfreau and Amanda Chanfreau (ill.) has been sold to Croatia and Latvia.

In Croatia, the book will be published by Ibis Grafika. Ibis grafika is an independent publishing company established in 1994 in Zagreb, Croatia. The goal of Ibis has always been to bring high quality literature to Croatian readers, and they have recently been trying to introduce more and more translated literature, especially from languages which have not yet been translated into Croatian. Ibis Grafika are best known for their picture book program, for which they have received many awards and recognitions (IBBY Honour list, White Raven’s Catalogue, among others). Ibis publishes around 30 titles a year, and in addition to the publishing activity, Ibis is also very active in organising and implementing reading encouragement activities, and work with schools to promote reading.

In Latvia, the book will be published by Janis Roze, the Latvian home of, among others, Anja Portin’s Radio Popov and Iida Turpeinen‘s Beasts of the Sea. Janis Roze is a Latvian publisher named after Professor Emeritus Janis Roze, and it is literary publishing house spanning from children’s literature to crime fiction for adults and poetry.

A Giraffe’s Heart is Unbelievably Large by Sofia & Amanda Chanfreau is a multi-awarded international best-seller for children: it won the Finlandia Prize in 2022, and was nominated for the Runeberg Prize the same year. 

In A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large we follow Vega, who is ten years old and lives with her father on Giraffe Island. Life goes along in its usual way, which in Vega’s case means anything but usual. She sees things no one else does, like imaginary animals that keep her company. The bathroom is home to a gray bear whose fur is lathered with shampoo, and on the way to school she encounters Atle the asphalt beaver and the crosswalk zebra Zacharias. Vega has never met her mother, and when she asks her father and her grandfather Hektor about her mother, they speak in mysteries. When Vega’s father gets a not-so-nice girlfriend and Vega gets an unexpected pen pal, she decides to set out on an adventure to find out more about her mother.

Colored by magical realism, A Giraffe’s Heart Is Unbelievably Large is a tale of longing to be part of a family, to find one’s place in the world, and to be loved as one is. It’s a superb read for a child alone or for parents and children together.

Warmest congratulations to the authors and the publishers!

Leena Krohn has been awarded the Authors’ Union recognition award for her career. Krohn has been an active author since the 1970s, and is one of the most famous and established voices in the Finnish literary scene.

Leena Krohn has been awarded the Authors’ Union recognition award, a yearly prize awarded to authors for their career and their work for the sake of literature. Krohn has been an active author since the 1970s, and has written plenty of novels, novellas, essays, and children’s books. Her style is characterised by magical realism and elements of speculative fiction. Her works have been translated into over a dozen different languages, and she is one of the most famous and established voices of the Finnish literary scene, and one of the best known Finnish authors internationally.

The Author’s Union statement reads as follows: “Leena Krohn’s narrative voice is unique, and her imagination knows no boundaries. In Krohn’s production the world is astonishingly weird and familiar at the same time, and in between words there seem to be hidden meanings. Despite the depth, Krohn leaves room for the reader’s own thought and reflections. The stories move from an insect city to an archive of paradoxes, and dream death. Krohn’s production is characterised by philosophical reflection and dreamlike strangeness. The strange stories deal with big human questions about making free choices, the difficulty of communication, shared reality and consciousness.”

Leena Krohn has previously been awarded the Eino Leino Prize (2017) and the Finlandia Prize (1992). Two of her works, Mathematical Creatures and The Pelican’s New Clothes, have recently travelled to Denmark.

Warmest congratulations!

The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen continues to succeed: after a glowing review from critics, it is now quickly becoming a readers’ favourite in Finnish libraries, making the top 10 list of the most reserved titles.

The Thick of the Forest by Linnea Kuuluvainen, one of this year’s strongest debuts from Finland, is on a roll: after scoring a glowing review on the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, it is now in the top 10 of the most reserved titles in the libraries of the Helsinki Metropolitan area, the most densely populated area of the country. Kuuluvainen’s debut is in the great company of, among others, Satu Rämö and Iida Turpeinen.

The Thick of the Forest is set in a near future where nature has started fighting back against humanity, destroying the world as we know it. To escape nature’s vengeance and isolate themselves from it as well as they can, people have fled to small city-states surrounded by walls. One of them is the former city of Turku, where a tightly guarded Nation has been established. Ingrid grew up in this new world, and has lived all her life in the Nation. After her mother’s death, she gets a job with a research group called Wild Rosemary, whose task is to map the conditions outside the walls of the Nation. Although the forest has been pacified, it is still angry and dangerous, and soon there is discord among the researchers as well. 

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. The result is a rich telling of the relationship between mankind and nature, and of how the lines dividing them become increasingly blurry in the depth of the forest. The book is published by Gummerus. 

Author Linnea Kuuluvainen (b. 1996) has studied Finnish language and writing, and is one of the most promising up-and-coming voices from Finland.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and way to go!

Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen has been sold to Vietnam and Latvia, where it will be published by Kim Dong and Janis Roze respectively. This marks 25 foreign language territories for this multiple award-winning debut mixing literature and science.

Beasts of the Sea continues its journey out into the world: Iida Turpeinen‘s multi award-winning debut is now travelling to Vietnam and Latvia, marking 25 foreign language territories for the title.

In Vietnam, Beasts of the Sea will be published by Kim Dong, the leading publishing house in Vietnam and the largest publishing house for children’s literature, boasting over 1000 titles per year. The publisher provides a wide range of collections and genres, and has been co-operating internationally with, among others, HarperCollins UK, Simon and SchusterUK, Shogakukan Inc., and Seoul Publishing House.

Beasts of the Sea will be published in Latvia by Janis Roze, the Latvian home of, among others, Anja Portin’s Radio Popov. Janis Roze is a Latvian publisher named after Professor Emeritus Janis Roze, and it is literary publishing house spanning from children’s literature to crime fiction for adults and poetry.

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. The novel is the winner of The Thank You for the Book Award, Finland’s booksellers’ prize, the best debut award, the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and a nominee for Finland’s biggest literary award, the Finlandia Prize, as well as for the Torch-bearer Prize. Its international breakthrough has been acknowledged for example by the Bookseller. In Finland, the book is published by Kustantamo S&S, a part of the Schildts & Söderströms publishing group.

Warmest congratulations to the author and the publishers!

The Thick of the Forest by Turku-based author Linnea Kuuluvainen, one of the strongest debuts of this year, has been off to a great start and has collected a glowing review on Helsingin Sanomat, the largest national newspaper.

Arla Kanerva, the reviewer on Helsingin Sanomat newspaper has commented as follows:

“Mankind destroys, and therefore mankind is destroyed. Linnea Kuuluvainen’s (b.1996) The Thick of the Forest brings a refreshing twist on a dystopia told many times over. […] the forest is a creature of its own, whose furious attack on Turku at the beginning of the book delights with the force of its cinematic perspective. The reasons for the rage of the forest are clear, and the author doesn’t attempt to iron out the centuries of man’s destructive actions. The Thick of the Forest does not preach, but rather researches the relationship between mankind and nature. There is also a delightful playfulness and the author’s joy in creating the world. The whirlwind of the author’s imagination shows the power of storytelling.“

The Thick of the Forest is set in a near future, nature has started fighting back against humanity, destroying the world as we know it. To escape nature’s vengeance and isolate themselves from it as well as they can, people have fled to small city-states surrounded by walls. One of them is the former city of Turku, where a tightly guarded Nation has been established. Ingrid grew up in this new world, and has lived all her life in the Nation. After her mother’s death, she gets a job with a research group called Wild Rosemary, whose task is to map the conditions outside the walls of the Nation. Although the forest has been pacified, it is still angry and dangerous, and soon there is discord among the researchers as well. 

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. The result is a rich telling of the relationship between mankind and nature, and of how the lines dividing them become increasingly blurry in the depth of the forest. The book is published by Gummerus.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher, and way to go!