News

Radio Popov by Anja Portin continues to establish itself as a wonderful international success. The Slovenian edition of the book by Sodobnost, in Slovenian translation by Julija Potrč Šavli, has been welcomed warmly and put in the spotlight last autumn.

In a tour in Slovenia author Anja Portin discussed the book and its themes with young readers and teachers, toured different literary events, and attended the Ljubljana Book Fair.

Radio Popov is one of the most successful children’s books of the last years: it won the Finlandia Junior upon its release, and has already travelled to 25 language territories. Radio Popov follows Alfred, a nine-year-old boy who lives virtually alone. His mother is not in the picture and his father is constantly busy with work and business trips. During one of these business trips Alfred is left alone for so long he runs out of food, and electricity is cut off. When everything seems lost, Alfred is saved by a mysterious stranger who delivers food and woollen socks in lonely children’s letterboxes. It is the beginning of a wonderful adventure that will lead Alfred to a new family, and to saving more forgotten children. Alfred’s story is moving, and touches on social issues, but also contains joy, friendship, and a happy ending. The story, where children are left to their own devices with their problems in the face of absent or unhelpful adults is reminiscent of literary classics like the works of Astrid Lindgren and Roald Dahl.

Anja Portin is also the author of The Book of Misty Trees, where fantasy, and environmentalism are mixed in a wonderful adventure.

Things That Fall From The Sky by Selja Ahava is travelling to Italy, where it will be published by Barta.

Things That Fall From The Sky by Selja Ahava continues its journey out into the world and is now travelling to Italy, where it will be published by Barta. This is the 28th language territory for this title, already winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2015, and longlisted for various prestigious awards, including the Warwick Prize and the DUBLIN Award.

Things That Fall From The Sky tells the story of a combination of extremely unlikely events: it follows a little girl whose mother is killed by a block of ice falling from the sky, her aunt who wins the lottery twice and then falls into a weeks-long sleep, and a man who has been struck by lightning five times. Things That Fall From The Sky is a literary, touching, unconventional fairytale about how life demands to be lived, no matter what absurd events may befall people.

Selja Ahava is an acclaimed Finnish author, dramaturge, and scriptwriter. All her novels have been received with glowing reviews and award nominations and wins. Her works are published in Finland by Gummerus.

Barta is a beautiful Tuscany-based publishing house whose list includes a selection of fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and comics. They pride in publishing the books that they’d like to read themselves, and curate their selections with attention and creativity.

Congratulations to the publisher and the author!

Pirkko Saisio’s The Red Book of Farewells has been crowned by the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper as the most important Finnish book of the millennium.

The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio, the third and last volume of the wildly successful Helsinki Trilogy, has been crowned by the Helsingin Sanomat national newspaper as the most important Finnish book of the millennium.

Helsingin Sanomat, the largest national newspaper in Finland, has compiled a list of the best 100 Finnish books of the millennium selected by literary critics and book industry professionals, and The Red Book of Farewells is topping the list. The choice is motivated as follows:

Eleonoora Riihinen, literary critic: “[The Red Book of Farewells] is a work that was ahead of its time in many ways, and it has become a modern classic. It documents a moment of the political movement in Helsinki in the 70s in the student community and the lesbian culture of the time. The emotions of falling in love and breaking up are loaded into a fragmentary and apparently light-hearted text in a touching way, but amazingly also in a way that is at the same time casual but elevated. “

Finnish Book Foundation Board Chair Mari Koli: “Pirkko Saisio’s Helsinki trilogy third and last part is a dazzling novel that transcends the autobiographical boundaries whose wistful snapshot of Helsinki in the 1970s and 1980s you’ll be happy to carry with you for a long time. And what about Saisio’s staggering theatrical sense! She builds immaculate dialogues into the middle of memory fragments, smaller plays infiltrated into the story that will stun even the most experienced reader. I can’t help but be moved and say thank you, Saisio, for existing and for writing”.

Pirkko Saisio’s production is in a league of its own in the Finnish literary scene: the Helsinki Trilogy received three Finlandia Prize nomination and one win, and it has been a wild success internationally. In the German-speaking world The Lowest Common Multiple, in German translation by Elina Kritzokat and edition by Klett Cotta, has been ranked in the Best 100 Books of the 21st century on NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, and it has received splendid reviews in the French- and Dutch-speaking world where it’s out with Robert Laffont and De Geus, and in Czech Republic, where it’s out with Host. The Helsinki trilogy also made Saisio the first contemporary Finnish author to be included in the Penguin Modern Classics.

Pirkko Saisio has released a new novel this autumn, Suliko, which is a deep, lyrical dive in the mind of a dictator approaching death. In Finland, it is published by Siltala and is currently nominated for the Runeberg Prize.

Warm thanks to Helsingin Sanomat, and warmest congratulations to the author!

The Cotton Mill Trilogy by Ann-Christin Antell continues to steal hearts: this wildly popular series has now sold 200.000 copies in Finland.

The Cotton Mill Trilogy is the perfect mix of history, entertainment, social justice, and romance. The trilogy starts in the late 1800s in Turku with The Shadow of the Cotton Mill, following young widow Jenny Malmström. Jenny is kind, strong-headed, and determined to do whatever she can to improve the workers’ conditions at the local cotton mill. Until one day she meets Fredrik, the cotton mill owner’s son, and things become infinitely more complicated as the two are drawn to each other: should Jenny follow her head, or her heart?

In Heir to the Cotton Mill, Martta, Jenny’s foster daughter, returns to Turku after studying in Stockholm for years. She finds the city profoundly changed, and so is she: born to a working class family who lived in poverty, Martta has now become part of a wealthy and powerful family, and she struggles to find her place in the world and her social identity. To make matters even more complicated, she meets her childhood friend Juho after many years, and is drawn to him. At the same time she is also introduced to the dandy Robert, who welcomes her into the Turku social circles, and is attracted to him, too. Troubles lie ahead but thankfully a happy ending is in the cards.

The trilogy peaks in Rival to the Cotton Mill, in which readers follow Paula, Martta’s daughter. It is the Roaring Twenties, and Paula is a modern woman: she drives a car, attends parties, and has an important role in the family business. One day news come that a rival business owner is planning on buying the cotton mill, effectively acquiring everything Paula’s family has built in generations. Paula is furious, but when she meets the young Rikhard Falke she finds herself irresistibly drawn to him, and it seems history is repeating itself.

The rights to the The Cotton Mill Trilogy, published in Finland by Gummerus, have already been sold for Danish, Dutch, French, Icelandic, and Swedish.

Ann-Christin Antell (b. 1973) studied history and archaeology and worked as a librarian before embarking on her career as an author. Her debut novel The Shadow of the Cotton Mill (2021) climbed to the top of the Finnish bestseller lists, as did its sequel, Heir to the Cotton Mill (2022). The final installment in the Cotton Mill series, A Rival for the Cotton Mill, is scheduled for 2023.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!

The Silver Locket by Eppu Nuotio, the second instalment in the Raakel Oksa Sets It Right series, is travelling to Latvia, where it will be published by Zvaigzne.

The Silver Locket (Raakel Oksa Sets It Right #2) by Eppu Nuotio is travelling to Latvia, where it will be published by Zvaigzne.

In The Silver Locket, Raakel Oksa, a self-employed carpenter with a sharp eye for people’s life stories, is hired to renovate the apartment of a lonely lady recently deceased, Kaarina, who had been hoarding all sorts of stuff in her apartment. Little by little it is revealed that Karina’s life had taken a dramatic turn in the summer of 1975, when she was involved in a complex relationship triangle with a tragic outcome.

The Raakel Oksa Sets It Right series is a balanced mix of cozy crime and feel-good: Raakel’s work takes her on the trail of mysteries that are never too violent or bloody, while still leaving the reader eagerly waiting for the final resolution. Raakel’s own private and love life are often mirrored in the cases she investigates, and acts as backdrop. The series began with The Buttercup Dress, followed by The Silver Locket, and by Longplay.

Eppu Nuotio is a well-known Finnish author, actor, teacher, translator, director, and playwright. Nuotio’s extensive body of work includes novels, children’s books, radio plays, plays, and television scripts.

Zvaigzne is a Latvian publishing house with a broad list consisting of children’s books, fiction, and non-fiction. They are the Latvian publisher of, among others, Camilla Läckberg, Stephen King, and Nino Haratischwili.

Congratulations to the author and the publisher!