Jensen & Dalgaard in Denmark have acquired the rights of Marisha Rasi-Koskinen’s novel REC, awarded a week ago on Friday with Runeberg Prize.
Marisha Rasi-Koskinen. (Photo: Miikka Pirinen)
REC, praised by readers and critics alike, is an atmospheric, post-modern dive into the fragmented reality we are living today. When teenager Lucas meets a peculiar boy named Cole, it is a start of a decades-long on-and-off friendship. In the story, real and fictional characters are present simultaneously, images and stories begin many times and in many places, and dark, possessive and manipulating side of people take over with irrevocable outcome – unless… nothing is true.
Jensen & Dalgaard is a Danish publisher with a strong list of quality fiction. From Finland, they are the publisher of Selja Ahava, Anu Kaaja, Juhani Karila, Leena Krohn, and several others.
Anni Kytömäki’s Finlandia Prize winning novel Margarita is gaining a lot of attention abroad. The rights have been sold to Estonia and Hungary, optioned in France, and an offer from Lithuania is on the table.
Anni Kytömäki’s bestselling debut novel Goldheart (2014) has been sold to France to Rue de l’échiquier, who has also optioned Kytömäki’s second novel Stone Weaver (2017) and the recent Margarita (2020).
At the moment, there is also an Lithuanian offer for Margarita on the table.
The novel, set in 50s Finland, is a page-turning, stunningly topical story in which the fates of people intertwine in an era when the relationship between people and nature start to change. With similarities to such recent successes as Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing and Richard Powers’ Overstory, Margarita writes the people as inseparable parts of the nature surrounding us.
The author’s debut novel Goldheart (2015) was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, and it was awarded Gummerus’ Kaarle Prize. Goldheart, a bestseller in Finland, also received the Torch-Bearer Prize, and it won the bloggers’ best book of the year award, Blogistanian Finlandia. In 2017, Kytömäki published the critically acclaimed Stone Weaver, which went straight to #3 on the bestseller list when it came out.
HLA is very proud to become a foreign rights representative for the young star of graphic novels, Ulla Donner, and immediately announce three foreign rights deals for her works!
Finlandia Prize winner Crap (2019)
Centrala has now acquired Czech, World English and Polish rights for Donner’s acclaimed graphic novels Crap (2019) and Spleenish (2017).
Donner (b. 1988) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator, cartoonist and a graphic designer. Spleenish was awarded the Stipend of the Swedish-Speaking Finnish Society of Authors, in addition to the The Most Beautiful Book award and a nomination to the Finlandia Prize for the best graphic novel. Her second graphic novel Crap was a critical success and the winner of the Finlandia prize for the best Finnish graphic novel.
Centrala is a publishing house specialising in comics; originally based in Poland, they now also operate in Berlin and London. As the publisher states on its website: “For us, comics means beautifully published, well written, and exceptionally drawn literature – a picture of life in a solid frame.” No better home for Donner’s exceptional work!
Karin Erlandsson’s and Peter Bergting’s masterful, adventurous pre-Christmas novel in 24 chapters Night Express, that has been compared to Maja Lunde’s international success The Snow Sister, has been sold to Sinisukk in Estonia and Alma littera in Lithuania.
Night Express (2020)
The title was awarded the Runeberg Prize on Thursday last week, and the interest towards this children’s novel has kept growing since.
Sinisukk is the Estonian publisher of Karin Erlandsson’s four-novel adventure series Song of the Eye Gemstone, recently also sold to UK. Sinisukk has a wide list of children’s literature, and they are the publisher of, among others, Astrid Lindgren in Estonia.
Alma littera is the biggest publishing house in Lithuania, with a large and impressive list, including such children’s authors as J. K. Rowling and Roald Dahl.
One of the greatest thrills for agents is to witness a book become a literary classic and represent it in the wide world. Therefore, we are always happy to see our backlist classics thriving abroad.
A Pastoral (2019)
Hungarian rights were sold to Aki Ollikainen’s astonishing debut White Hunger (2012), which received numerous awards in Finland and was also longlisted for The International Booker Prize, Prix Femina and Europese Literatuurprijs, as well as author’s third novel A Pastoral (2018) (pictured). The latter was also acquired by the Armenian house Guitank, making it the third foreign rights deal altogether (previously sold to France); White Hunger has now travelled 13 territories altogether. The publisher in Hungary is Polar.
Also Finnish poetry grand Paavo Haavikko is experiencing a revival: at the end of last year we announced that his poems will be published in Hebrew; now the Estonian publisher EKSA acquired his 1987 fictional memoir An Attempt to Self-Portrait, and a Czech house Dybbuk bought the rights for poetry collectionWinter Palace (1959).Haavikko (1931–2008) is considered to be one of the most significant writers in Finland’s literary cannon, and his poetry has been published in volume format in 12 languages.
Lempi (2016)
On the female authors’ front, Minna Rytisalo’s bestseller Lempi was sold to Hungary (Polar), making it the 5th foreign rights sale for the title. With 6 editions in Germany, over 30,000 copies sold in Finland, nomination as the favourite book by German-speaking booksellers in Switzerland and also for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize, the Runeberg Prize and Lapland Literature Prize, the book is one of definite hits of modern literary classics. Lempi also won the Blogistania Finlandia Prize (the best novel of the year voted by the Finnish bloggers), Thank You for the Book Prize (awarded by the Finnish Booksellers’, Librarians’ and Libraries Associations) and the Botnia Prize.
Hungarian rights (Polar) were also sold for novelsThe Red Letter of Farewell (2003) and Backlight (2000) written by one of the most prominent Finnish authors Pirkko Saisio. Among other awards, she has been nominated for the most prestigious literary award in the country, Finlandia Prize, six times, and has been compared to the Danish phenomenon Tove Ditlevsen, recently discovered and lauded by The New York Times’ Parul Sehgal. Meanwhile, Märta Tikkanen’s legendary classic The Love Story of the Century (1978), not long ago published in English by Deep Vellum, has now found a home in Greece (rights acquired by Melani).
